Kevin Lewis
Guest Columnist
On Saturday, for the fourth consecutive year, I spent the day by invitation from the Kiril and Methodius Foundation interviewing 16-year-olds in English. Schools in the United World Colleges (UWC) international network award a number of scholarships every year for a small number of bright young Bulgarians to finish their final two school years. Saturday was the third and final round for this year’s candidates.
I rarely spend a complete day listening to young people. Exchanges with my own children remind me of the Hindi of memsahibs with 15 years’ Indian residence – a limited number of verbs in the imperative mode (“Get up”, “Wash”, “Clean up”, “Go to bed”) supplemented by questions (“Where is my ..?”, “Why did you ..?”, “How much???”) as I try to conjure order and civilisation from confusion. These exchanges rarely progress to anything resembling a balanced conversation. Their minds remain, for me, places of considerable mystery. I shudder that my elder can now vote, and haven’t a clue how he would use it, except, I suspect, by trading it if he could. So while listening to UWC hopefuls is a long and concentrated process, it is also hugely informing and energising. We see some of the brightest teenagers in the country. They have already demonstrated their hunger for learning and achieving. They have ideals, and can articulate their hopes in a foreign language. I always learn a lot from the experience (“So what exactly is ‘hip-hop’?”)
Every year the idealism and patriotism, in the best sense of the word, of these youngsters shines through. They know that they are privileged high achievers, and they genuinely want to use their talents to benefit their country. Strongly committed to Bulgaria, they believe that mixing with other cultures and a high quality international education will benefit them and enable them to offer something to their country. This is not coached interview-speak. You can tell from looking into their eyes.
Surveys show that a high proportion of the educated young in this country are looking for opportunities to work abroad. It is natural for young people, particularly from small or remote countries, to want to travel. London always bustles with, say, young Australians, New Zealanders and Irish. I can understand that young Bulgarians want to travel; but it is sad that so many who are able to do so stay away. Two years’ UWC schooling inevitably opens the way for scholarships to prestigious universities abroad. The chances of these youngsters then returning to live in Bulgaria in the short to medium term are very, very slim. So this selection process becomes part of the young Bulgarian brain drain.
But you can’t deny young people the opportunities available to them. I remain delighted for these individuals, who get a chance – as I have – to live in another country. You can see excitement in their eyes. In their parents’ eyes you can see pride and opportunity, but tinged with sadness. They realise, as I do, that, idealism notwithstanding, their children are unlikely to return to Bulgaria in the foreseeable future.
This is not a complete loss to the country. A high-achieving diaspora returns prestige, confidence and money to the country. Their talents can be harnessed. The Easter and Rozhen initiatives are attempts to do this. Recent experience in Poland and Hungary, for example, suggests that when the time is right the expatriate network can play an important role in national development. So, despite ambivalent feelings about long term scholarships, I continue to play a personal role in this one.
Incidentally, we asked the ‘finalists’ to write a short piece setting out the arguments for and against capital punishment, and giving with reasons their own preference. This was not to find out their opinions, rather to test their ability to see an important social question in the round and argue a position. By a large majority they threw out the death penalty. Great!
I rarely spend a complete day listening to young people. Exchanges with my own children remind me of the Hindi of memsahibs with 15 years’ Indian residence – a limited number of verbs in the imperative mode (“Get up”, “Wash”, “Clean up”, “Go to bed”) supplemented by questions (“Where is my ..?”, “Why did you ..?”, “How much???”) as I try to conjure order and civilisation from confusion. These exchanges rarely progress to anything resembling a balanced conversation. Their minds remain, for me, places of considerable mystery. I shudder that my elder can now vote, and haven’t a clue how he would use it, except, I suspect, by trading it if he could. So while listening to UWC hopefuls is a long and concentrated process, it is also hugely informing and energising. We see some of the brightest teenagers in the country. They have already demonstrated their hunger for learning and achieving. They have ideals, and can articulate their hopes in a foreign language. I always learn a lot from the experience (“So what exactly is ‘hip-hop’?”)
Every year the idealism and patriotism, in the best sense of the word, of these youngsters shines through. They know that they are privileged high achievers, and they genuinely want to use their talents to benefit their country. Strongly committed to Bulgaria, they believe that mixing with other cultures and a high quality international education will benefit them and enable them to offer something to their country. This is not coached interview-speak. You can tell from looking into their eyes.
Surveys show that a high proportion of the educated young in this country are looking for opportunities to work abroad. It is natural for young people, particularly from small or remote countries, to want to travel. London always bustles with, say, young Australians, New Zealanders and Irish. I can understand that young Bulgarians want to travel; but it is sad that so many who are able to do so stay away. Two years’ UWC schooling inevitably opens the way for scholarships to prestigious universities abroad. The chances of these youngsters then returning to live in Bulgaria in the short to medium term are very, very slim. So this selection process becomes part of the young Bulgarian brain drain.
But you can’t deny young people the opportunities available to them. I remain delighted for these individuals, who get a chance – as I have – to live in another country. You can see excitement in their eyes. In their parents’ eyes you can see pride and opportunity, but tinged with sadness. They realise, as I do, that, idealism notwithstanding, their children are unlikely to return to Bulgaria in the foreseeable future.
This is not a complete loss to the country. A high-achieving diaspora returns prestige, confidence and money to the country. Their talents can be harnessed. The Easter and Rozhen initiatives are attempts to do this. Recent experience in Poland and Hungary, for example, suggests that when the time is right the expatriate network can play an important role in national development. So, despite ambivalent feelings about long term scholarships, I continue to play a personal role in this one.
Incidentally, we asked the ‘finalists’ to write a short piece setting out the arguments for and against capital punishment, and giving with reasons their own preference. This was not to find out their opinions, rather to test their ability to see an important social question in the round and argue a position. By a large majority they threw out the death penalty. Great!
