According to elementary and high school students, participants of the Youth Advisory Panel of the Protector of Citizens, Covid -19 pandemic denied the children and the youth the right to good quality education, the right to socialize and the rights to rest and healthcare, pointing out on that occasion that even amid the pandemic the children and the youth should be asked about their needs and rights.

At an online meeting organized on 20 November, the World Children’s Day, the children and the youth stated that the pandemic had prevented them from attending classes regularly and from having good quality lectures, and claimed that the school system had not been prepared for the transition to online teaching, primarily due to the lack of teachers’ training and their readiness to apply modern technologies in teaching.

In addition to numerous objections to the organization of online classes, the most common of which relates to fitting the time of such classes to teachers and not students, the young panelists also pointed out the impossibility of some children, especially in rural areas, to attend the classes online, as well as the difficulty in exercising the right to education of children with disabilities.

Final grade elementary school pupils expressed concern whether they will be able to master the material for taking the finals and earn enough points to enroll in the desired school. In this regard, it was agreed with the representatives of the Sector for Child Rights of the Protector of Citizens to ask for clarifications from the competent ministry regarding the final exam and holding the entrance exams for the enrollment at the faculties.

The panelists stated that due to the uneven online classes organization, they were denied the right to socialize and rest as they did not have time for that because of all-day online school duties, and some also complained that they were not seeing all their classmates while others stated that they had not yet met all the classmates they go to school with.

Also, the young panelists stated that the right of the child to health care was jeopardized due to the pandemic since, as they explained, they need to test for Covid and wait for the results in order to be examined by other doctors, which is particularly problematic for children with rare diseases.

In their suggestions for overcoming the problems in the exercise of child rights, the participants of the panel, among other things, pointed out the need for adults to pay more attention to children and their opinions when making decisions, and above all to criticism. To that end, as they stated, children should be informed in a timely and accurate manner.