Family and youth
Give kids and families more political weight and autonomy.
If we are lucky, children today only learn foreign languages through online applications and games. More often than not, the content they are fed is highly politicised, radicalising children long before schools introduce political education.
We also often hear that Europe is an aging continent and that there are not enough children to keep our population stable. With unaffordable housing and few stable employment opportunities, should we wonder that more Slovenes leaving the country than returning.
Volt Slovenija proposes reforms for housing and labour markets. In addition, we would want to strengthen the voice of youth and improve conditions for families:
Youth policy
Lower the voting age to 16 years similar to other EU member states.
Introduce political education as soon as children begin using smartphones. We cannot let social media instill their idea of political and democratic consciousness in our children before they learn about it in school.
Initiate a programme on high-school level that gives the possibility to do one year of school abroad and allow students to organize their stay from learning how to apply for financial support to finding a participating school and host family.
Put more emphasis on mental health for youth with obligatory ratios of teachers of confidence and psychological counsellors per 250 school children and mailboxes in schools to signal harassment, bullying and violence similar to the french Butterfly mailboxes.
Ensure schools are up to par with technological developments. We cannot only prepare children for the physical world and let them discover the digital world themselves.
Put an emphasis on youth mobility by introducing late-night bus services for underaged youth common in the 1990s in public bus schedules. These “disco-buses” circulate across small villages and discotheques in the beginning of the evening and return late at night to allow safe travel for youth.
Family-friendly policies
Copy Finland’s BabyBox model providing a starter kit for babies (or cash contribution) with clothes, hygiene products and other necessities provided mothers do a medical examination during pregnancy and parents seek health and educational information.
Expand high-quality free school lunches as a complement to a high-quality free education including one vegetarian option.
Ensure employees can modify working hours depending on both childcare and care for the elderly without jeopardizing their career similar to provisions in the German law for non-discrimination of and flexibility to demand part-time work.
(version 02-2025)