“We’re fighting for ourselves. Kids are losing trust and optimism in adults.” And what about campus romance?

“We ask kids what they think. It doesn’t always have to be a perfect reflection of reality, that’s not even the goal, it’s about their perception.” Jana Špolcová, representative of the STEM/MARK agency, said while presenting the results of the Young Voices survey that the research of the Czech Committee for UNICEF is precisely aimed at ensuring that children are not afraid to share what makes them happy at school, what worries them and how happy they actually are.

Although it is clear that Czech children enjoy going to school, one third of the children surveyed do not enjoy going to school. At the same time, school and school performance also affect children’s happiness. Surveys show that high school students have better living conditions. Less than half of children from poor families are happy at school.

“We don’t have the ability to fight for others”

The anonymous survey also showed a significant decline in trust in adults, with children increasingly not trusting their teachers, but also their parents. Pavla Gomba, director of the Czech Committee for UNICEF, told Blesk.In general, children are becoming less trusting of adults, and their trust in their parents is also decreasing. When I have a problem, I discuss it with my friends. This is a general, long-term trend, and I don’t know where it will go. For example, I would like the children to have a psychologist around them,” She pointed out when asked by Blaske after the press conference that the questionnaire showed that only 30% of respondents had confided the problem to their teachers, compared with 38% previously.

Blaske also asked a student present about the issue of trust and confidence. “I think the post-COVID era has definitely reduced happiness. I think it’s because kids don’t have anyone to turn to. Not only with teachers, but also with classmates. They are insecure themselves, they don’t know what to do with themselves, they don’t know how to help themselves, and they see the same thing in others, everyone trying to fight for themselves and not being able to serve others. They are afraid to confide in their elders because everyone has their own problems. Those teachers may not be fully supportive of this,” Fourteen-year-old Victoria told Blesk Zpravám.

Victoria also mentioned that it was okay for the kids to talk, but she was worried it wouldn’t have much of an effect. “They worry that if they reach out, nothing will happen,” She said. He also knew from his surroundings that teachers in other schools outside of the gymnasium were often reluctant. “It varies from person to person, but generally teachers there just teach and don’t do anything else.”

In presenting the results, Gomba also mentioned that trust also decreases depending on the financial status of the household. “The children’s voices expressed in the research call on us to systematically create the best possible environment for them to thrive in school,” She emphasized.

Czech children age faster

The survey, which has been repeated irregularly for more than 20 years and polls children aged 9 to 17, has clearly been declining over that time, Spolkova said. “Happiness and optimism are disappearing. Trust in adults is falling. Childhood is shorter in the Czech Republic and maturity is earlier. We are watching how the children’s views are changing, what they told us at the age of 13, is now at the age of 11-12,” She noted that teenagers also start working earlier and realize earlier what real life brings. The covid-19 pandemic has also had an impact on this, Spolkova said.

Blesk News asked a UNICEF representative about the reasons for the loss of optimism and the growing reports of an increase in anxiety disorders among children. “There is such a paradox here. In the first survey, we also looked at happiness in other countries around the world, and the happiest children were from Uzbekistan. A colleague explained to us that this is also because there is a lot of censorship, the media is restricted and filtered. This has to do with the fact that children don’t have so many stimuli for comparison. Most confidently, they have no references there, they don’t know how things are elsewhere. I’m not saying this is right. But I attribute these problems to information and overindulgence. The availability of information and social networks, that’s the biggest change in 20 years and one of the biggest reasons,” Gomba said.

In this year’s survey, 411 children were interviewed. The researchers collected the data in June. For example, more than a third of 14-17-year-olds answered “When I do badly in school” to the question “When do you feel unhappy?” 28% of respondents said that bad results can also bother younger children.