Youth Parliament
Warwickshire’s Members of Youth Parliament (MYPs) have initiated a campaign called Value the Vote, which aims to incorporate political education into the secondary education curriculum in order to break down barriers and engage more young people in politics.
The MYPs recognise that most young people find politics uninteresting and often confusing, and believe that if young people have the opportunity to find out about the basics of politics in an interesting and engaging way then they will be able to effect change more easily.
The first part of this campaign is to find out how much young people know about politics, and they hope to gain 10,000 responses through this nationwide survey. Once they have the results, they will present them to Government ministers with a request to include some basic political education on the core curriculum that is both useful and enjoyable.
The “Value The Vote” campaign was recently elected as a national campaign by the UK Youth Parliament, which will ensure that pressure is applied to central Government at a national level.
“I don't think it should take huge scandals to make people talk and show an interest about the political world. People should feel that we are part of the political process all of the time and that it is not just a job for a few elite!” (Vicky Fowler, Member of Youth Parliament for Warwickshire)