WIMPS Manifesto – Education and Health

Tuesday 11 May 10

By Bronagh – Member of the Belfast WIMPS crew.

As I’m sure most of you know by now, especially after the recent WIMPS cast, there is a general election coming up on the 6th May. WIMPS have decided to make our own Manifesto with young people in mind, we will be putting this to all the local politicians and there will be a copy of the manifesto up on the WIMPS website in the coming week.

We have decided on five issues that we feel that the young people of Northern Ireland can relate to, and they are: Health, Education, Education and Training, Democracy, International Affairs and the Environment.

We feel that Education, Employment and Training is a very important topic that is always up for discussion around election time, so naturally we see this as one of the top 5 topics and have included it in our Manifesto. The comment below has been taken from our Manifesto:

“Having access to proper education and training are vital to securing a good job. More and more young people are leaving school without basic qualifications while at the same time the numbers of young people applying for university places is going up every year. We want to see better standard of education for everyone. Better access to training and apprenticeships and a reduction of costs for third level education.”

On the issue of Education, Employment and Training WIMPS have discovered some worrying facts about unemployment here in Northern Ireland as the rate for unemployment for 18-24 ear olds is double the national average at 12%.

Health is a very important topic for discussion as well. The following statement has been taken from our Manifesto:

“Young people are often over looked in terms of Health Care Provision despite the fact that young people have very specific health care needs that differ from adults. Young people are at risk if they do not have access to adequate and appropriate services.”

On the issue of Health, WIMPS have discovered a lot of very concerning facts about a number of issues such as; did you know that 10% of children and young people aged between 5-16 in the UK have a clinically recognised mental disorder, yet there are only a small number of specialist units for these patients, and not one in Northern Ireland.

These are only two of the facts that we have discovered through our research into these topics. To find out more don’t hesitate to check out the WIMPS election manifesto on our website at www.wimps.tv