education is currently in the precarious position of being in the midst of unanticipated change a system that has long seemed resistant to evolution is having to adapt as covid19 makes it impossible to continue as it has in the past but often when we talk about reform in education students become the forgotten stakeholders whose perspectives arent taken into account state of youth an initiative of the kidsright foundation connected by facebook recently asked youth from all over the world their opinion on education with indian students being the highest represented out of 84 countries thousands of them voted in this preferendum and highlighted the issues they face in accessing quality education also addressing the specific issues they face in light of a global pandemic they have sent letters with the results to the ministers of education in the top ten countries in which people voted including indias minister of human development dr ramesh pokhriyalyouth were not only asked to identify the various issues they face but also asked to offer solutions that they feel may help in this preferendum they found that 93 of youth think that the lack of inclusive and quality education is a problem and 98 agree that additional action is needed to tackle this issue the top three solutions they offered were as follows equal opportunities which means governments should ensure that the rich and poor have the same chances to obtain a good education the importance of practicality so education focuses more on the practical than theoretical and teaches life skills and tailormade education which encourages the potential of each particular child rather than focus on specific types of childrenwhen asked about their education during the pandemic 80 of them said that the virus has had negative impacts on their education since it has delayed classes and led to lower motivation they also pointed out that they didnt have access to educational materials their suggestions to make this time easier were for teachers to put less pressure on deadlines and for schools to offer financial support for those who didnt have access to educational materials79 of the youth also believes that they can be part of this change towards more inclusive quality education with 44 saying they can do this by raising awareness either through social media petitions or advocacy and 27 believing that mentoring other young people is the answerfour such preferendums on different topics are held yearly by state of youth an initiative that is building a nonpolitical nonreligious digital state that empowers the youth ages 1324 they focus their attention on the un sustainable development goals in particular young people are emphasized as critical agents of change according to the 2030 agenda of sustainable development and inclusive and equitable quality education is the sustainable development goal 420yearold bangaloreresident garvita gulhati who is a youth board member of state of youth and founder of water conservation nonprofit why waste says our preferendum allows youth from anywhere in the world to vote