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Young people in Czechia are worried about environmental problems, financial insecurity and the housing crisis, they fear they will not have the same standard of living as of the generation of their parents, according to a survey of the National Institute SYRI presented in the Senate today.
The authors of the survey also said that young people feel pressure to perform and high expectations from society, that they predominantly distrust Czech politics among and perceive a growing polarisation of society and an unwillingness to debate.
For the environmental crisis, young people perceive that it is possible to reach a solution, but for other problems they feel that a solution is more distant, the survey showed.
Respondents also mentioned digital technologies as a separate social problem. Moreover, these technologies tend to amplify some of the other problems according to them.
In the survey, young people also mentioned fear of disinformation, individualism in society, low tolerance and unequal rights for minorities. "They criticise the fact that they don't see any solidarity in society, any help from other people," said Veronika Tesarova, one of the authors.
Young people want to get involved, but not directly in politics. Rather, they are leaning towards building a community, which they believe has a greater impact on the society around them. They also feel that they don't have the space to express themselves on certain issues, either because of their age or because they have to focus on their economic security and don't have time for activism. However, according to the authors, they are happy to take advantage of the opportunities that school, for example, offers them.
It is at school that young people would like to receive more practical knowledge, according to the survey, especially on mental health care, financial and digital literacy and working with artificial intelligence. But young people see school as a strong institution that they trust and is important to them in tackling a range of social issues.
"They would also like the school to give more space for critical thinking, authentic dialogue and a shared effort to understand the contemporary world," said Klara Sedova, SYRI's scientific director. According to her, young people perceive the importance of education and approach it outside of school, but this opens the way to various uncontrolled influences.
The survey took place in the autumn of last year in the form of in-depth interviews in which 33 people aged between 15 and 19 and another 35 respondents aged between 20 and 24 . It answered. All levels of education were represented among the respondents. The questions were asked by students of Masaryk University in Brno. SYRI would like to follow up the survey with a quantitative questionnaire survey.