On Tuesday the 22nd of October six students from our school took part in Comhairle na nÓg youth council in the Rose Hotel. There were twenty-three schools from all over the county of Kerry who took part. We were lucky to be selected to represent our school and take part in the day’s activities. We learned and discussed a lot of issues young people are facing in Kerry in todays’ society. It was a great pleasure to be a part of it.
We shared our opinions on different topics and interacted with students of all ages from different schools. The topics we discussed include transport, peer-pressure, social media, and health and safety. We discussed the challenges that people are facing and we worked together to try to come up with some solutions to those issues.
At the end of our conference students voted for one idea that the Comhairle na nÓg committee will take to Parliament and present it to the education minister Norma Foley. Most students chose the topics of wellbeing, student mental health and how to address student anxiety within the school community. We feel strongly about this specific topic, and we are glad it will be addressed in the Dáil. The Mayor of Kerry was a guest speaker, and it was important to meet him as he encouraged us to stay connected with Comhairle na nÓg. It was overall a wonderful experience. We enjoyed many aspects of the day.
The day was very beneficial for us to learn about the affairs currently happening in Kerry related to young people. We look forward to returning next year with hopefully more opinions and insights into how to tackle concerning issues in both our school community and local community of Kerry.
Thank you,
Divyanshi Shukla and Anfiya Joby