"The Strategy failed to address the key problems of young people; for example, it completely bypassed the area of mental health. If we do not address promptly the current challenges related to the demands and needs of the young generation, the problems will continue to grow, making their solution increasingly difficult over time. This not only poses a significant impact on public finances but, more importantly, on young people's health," said Henrieta Crkoňová, Deputy Chairwoman of the Audit Office.

The Supreme Audit Office considers the creation of conditions for the education and development of young people at all stages of their lives to be essential for the development of society. The Slovak Youth Strategy for 2021-2028, which we audited, was also supposed to contribute to improving conditions for young people. Youth policy has a solid cross-cutting character, which implies active cooperation between state administration institutions, local government and the non-governmental sector. However, according to the national auditors, this objective has not been achieved. The inter-ministerial working group on youth, which was supposed to prepare the Strategy, has not met even once in more than three years. 

The state institutions that are supposed to implement the essential tasks of the Strategy actively are not fulfilling the functions, tasks, and objectives that the Ministry of Education established. For example, the current legislation does not allow the National Institute of Education and Youth to implement accredited forms of training programmes for youth workers. In fact, with the demise of IUVENTA - Slovak Youth Institute two years ago, all accreditations of non-formal education ceased to exist and were not transferable. The Strategy did not foresee this problem, and its solution requires a change in the law. Despite this situation, the Strategy considers IUVENTA to be an important partner in the implementation of the strategic objectives, which the auditors consider to be a high implementation risk.

The full text of the press release about this issue in Slovak language is available here.