The young ones

I wonder whether Tony (‘Education, education, education’) Blair or any of his cohorts in the Education Department were listening to the BBC World Service’s School Day 24 last week. Children from around the world were brought together in live link-ups as part of the BBC’s Generation Next week of programmes designed to give young people, aged from 12 to 18, the chance to air their views, dominate the agenda, talk to each other across religious and ethnic frontiers. Mr Blair might have questioned the success of those ‘literacy hours’ after hearing the kids from a school in north London alongside those from New Delhi and Dar es Salaam. It was not that the English teenagers were lacking in confidence or self-expression. What disturbed me was their inability (when compared with their Indian or Tanzanian counterparts) to phrase an idea, complete a sentence, without a ‘you know’, ‘kind of’, ‘ummmm’. Happiness, from Tanzania, was far better equipped as an English-speaker to convey what she was thinking, eloquently and purposefully.

It was a great idea by the BBC to devote a week of programming to the next generation during the Christian season of Advent, when the key words are prepare, make ready and the promise of what is to come. To spend the day listening to the energy, the enthusiasm and the optimism expressed by young voices from around the world can be inspiring — Santosh, an 11-year-old boy living on the streets in Delhi, for instance, who told Robin Lustig about the bank he has set up, lending to his friends, orphans like himself who have been forced by circumstances over which they have no control to take on the mantle of adulthood. He has saved 500 rupees in a couple of months, from the odd money he picks up by selling chewing gum or carrying luggage.