By: Joshua Opey, Commonwealth Youth Council My name is Joshua Opey, and I chair the Commonwealth Youth Council, the official youth organisation of the Commonwealth. I am from Ghana. The Youth Council was established in 2013 and is endorsed by the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth. Since then, it has represented young people across […] The post Young people must be part of implementation, not just consultation appeared first on World Education Blog.
By: Joshua Opey, Commonwealth Youth Council
My name is Joshua Opey, and I chair the Commonwealth Youth Council, the official youth organisation of the Commonwealth. I am from Ghana. The Youth Council was established in 2013 and is endorsed by the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth. Since then, it has represented young people across the 56 member states, working with national youth councils and youth representative mechanisms to ensure that young people’s views are reflected in decision-making.
Our work takes place at different levels. We represent young people in ministerial and pan-Commonwealth processes, but we are also closely involved at the grassroots level. In countries where national youth councils exist, we support them to strengthen their work. Where they do not exist, we support young people and governments to establish them. This combination of high-level advocacy and practical engagement is central to our role.
My own experience in youth and student representation began early. In high school, I was part of a regional student representative council in Ghana, representing more than 50,000 students in the Greater Accra Region. At that time, we were consulted on education policy reforms that later led to free senior high school education. At university, I served as General Secretary of the University of Ghana Students’ Union and later of the National Union of Ghana Students. During this period, we supported the development of Ghana’s National Youth Policy and worked on reforms to the student loan system.
One of the most important lessons I have learned is that meaningful youth engagement goes beyond consultation. For us, it means integrating young people throughout decision-making processes and into implementation. Young people are often excluded through assumptions about experience or expertise. Yet, time and again, young people with limited formal experience bring new ideas that challenge long-standing practices that have failed to deliver results, including on education outcomes and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Resistance often comes from discomfort with the energy young people bring. Youth engagement can feel disruptive. In the past, this disruption took the form of activism. Today, many young people are seeking something different: a seat at the table as equal partners, where they can co-design solutions rather than push from the outside. Recognising young people as equal partners remains one of the biggest barriers.
A clear example of successful youth engagement is the reform of the student loan scheme in Ghana. Although access to basic and secondary education had expanded significantly, tertiary enrolment remained low, largely due to financing barriers. The loan system required guarantors from the formal economy, automatically excluding the majority of young people. Student unions analysed the data, proposed alternatives, and advocated for change. The guarantor requirement was removed and replaced with a system based on national identification, making access to loans significantly easier. Students were also involved in implementation, outreach, and monitoring.
Looking ahead, the question is not whether to involve young people, but how. Engagement must be adapted to young people, not the other way around. Traditional consultation tools are often insufficient. Youth-friendly and innovative approaches—including creative, digital, and participatory methods—can unlock insights that formal processes miss. At the same time, young people must be part of implementation. In countries where young people make up the majority of the population, treating them only as beneficiaries rather than drivers of solutions limits progress.
In education, young people are the central stakeholders. Without them, education has no purpose. Integrating young people into decision-making and implementation is not optional; it is essential for improving access, quality, and relevance. When young people are given real mandates and real responsibility, education systems are stronger and more responsive.
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The Commonwealth Youth Council (CYC) is the official representative voice of the more than 1.2 billion young people in the Commonwealth. The CYC was first established in 2013 with the support of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Commonwealth Youth Programme. It was endorsed by Commonwealth Heads of Government at their biennial summit in Sri Lanka as an ‘autonomous, youth-led organization
- Read the report
- Download the illustration on meaningful youth engagement and use your creativity to express youth voices, ideas and aspirations through colour
- Consult the global mapping of youth and student organizations
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