MTS keeps hidden views of young people

Every two years, the Ministry of Youth and Sport (MTS) is required to achieve a national barometer of public opinion among young people, whose role is to identify, on the one hand, the trends of the preferences and needs of young people and, on the Other side of social problems. Without this diagnosis at national level, we cannot identify solutions that can be implemented through activities, projects and programmes, aimed at preventing and/or combating certain phenomena. I mean, it's difficult to identify the intervention priorities. In the absence of such a study, it is even harder for us to assess whether the directions planned by the non-governmental sector and especially the public are the most effective. How does the barometer process work? It is very simple: no MTS performs this study, but, on the basis of an allocated budget, in the autumn of each year par (2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018), the Ministry orders the research work and, through a public procurement process, contracts it, a And, until the end of the year, make it public. Research results, along with several other benchmarks, guide MTS in the selection of priorities over the next two years and, above all, budgetary allocations to support them. Last year, MTS published the auction on October 18th to take place on October 29th. This was aimed at the acquisition of social research services for the achievement of two works:

1. Diagnosis 2018-The situation of youth and its expectations (Price: 58,800 lei, excluding VAT)
2. Forecast of labour market development and trends-threats and opportunities (Price: 67,200 lei, excluding VAT)

However, their publication was not carried out in the year 2018, as it should have been, but appeared later on 31 January 2019. The strange part only now begins: While many of the non-governmental organisations wrote the foundations of the projects to be submitted to open funding calls for the first part of February, foundations based on social status and Young people's expectations, diagnosis 2018-The situation of youth and its expectations disappeared without explanation from the MTS website. It remained mentioned only in the title of the article on the site, instead, the attachment was withdrawn, only finding the forecast of the evolution and trends of the labour market-threats and opportunities. It is true, in the public space, after 2-3 days after the publication of diagnosis 2018, some of the answers of young people in Romania were taken-those referring to the preferences of young people on political parties. As can be seen in the case of surveys in the years 2008 (p. 123) and 2012 (p. 79), among the 60-70 questions posed to young people under this type of national public opinion barometer, there are also questions on the subject. Therefore, the listing of political parties according to the preferences of young people is not a novelty, especially in the chapter dedicated to the questions concerning youth participation. However, in the year 2019, MTS Management chose to censuate (by withdrawing research from the site) expressing the views of young people. Diagnosis 2018 represents a purchase made from public money, the result of which, unaltered, MTS is required to make public. On February 18, 2019, in the Youth Advisory Council, as evidenced by the minutes of the meeting, MTS management was asked why Diagnoza 2018 disappeared from the site, and the justification was as follows:

The survey was made by the ires and the resulting data was a deal with MTS as the recommendations and data that they will interpret to make available to us as a basis not only for the projects that NGOs submit but also on the establishment of those and priorities that the MTS will assume through funding. We expect from the Institute of Education Sciences, as soon as possible, the recommendations and a first draft of conclusions with which we will come to the site. […] The results and data on the site will be released next week. (Cătălin Lazarus-Adviser to Secretary of State Remus Munteanu)

I come back and say, the results interpreted by the Institute of Education Sciences, with the recommendations according to the protocol between us and them, will be posted next week. (Cătălin Lazarus-Adviser to Secretary of State Remus Munteanu)