KABUL (SW) – Findings of a latest Salam Watandar survey show that 39.1% of the surveyed youths lead their lives without specific goals while 60.9% of the other are following purposeful life.
Salam Watandar conducted a survey with 305 young people from 12 provinces of the country in order to investigate the level of goal-setting in the lives of Afghan youths.
Findings of this survey show the 39.1 percent of young people who do not have a goal in life consider the ban on education, unfavorable working conditions in Afghanistan, and lack of motivation in the country as the reasons that prevented them from achieving their goals.
Among the young people who live aimlessly, 75.8% did not have a clear reason for their aimlessness and 24.1% are aimless because they have no hope for the future.
24-year-old Zabihullah, a resident of Taluqan central of Takhar province, said: ” I am one of the shopkeepers in the city. I studied for 18 years and got my master’s degree. The goal in Afghanistan is to survive, considering these conditions, it is very important to me.”
Another participant, Roya, a residents of Jowzjan, said: “I was in the 12th grade of school when the schools were closed. At that time, I had many goals. Unfortunately, all the goals ended with the arrival of the [Islamic Emirate]. While I was in school, I wanted to become a doctor, but it didn’t happen.”
Among the young people who live with specific goals, 64.3% mentioned educational goals, 21.6% career advancement, 7.5% immigration, 4.8% getting rich and 1.6% personal improvement as their goals.
Khatima, a resident of Kabul and a graduate of English literature, stated: “I have a goal and my goal is to reach one of the foreign countries to continue my education for the master’s degree.”
Gholam Sakhi, a resident of Sar-e Pol and a graduate of journalism, said he has specific goals for his academic future. “Fortunately, I have a bachelor’s degree in journalism. I want to be promoted to master’s and doctorate levels.”
However, sociologists consider young people as the basic pillar of a society and say that their activity has an important impact on the development of society.
Sociologist Shafiqullah Ansari said: “Having a goal makes the youth motivated for their work, they feel a lot of responsibility and it is effective in economic growth. If the youth do not have a goal, we will witness social problems and these aimless youths may lead to addiction and witness a decrease grow economically.”
Psychologists say that the current situation has affected the concentration of young people and this makes them unable to think about their goals.
Hussain Kazemi, a researcher on psychological counseling issues, told Salam Watandar: “Not having a goal, lack of concentration and when a person is not in a good state of mind, he cannot concentrate. And, this does not resolve anything if one just sit in the corner and not have a goal. We can accept everything and create it with the conditions.”
In this survey, the gender of the respondents was also examined, 58% of the participants were female and 42% were male.
The literacy level of the participants included 42.6% current students, 32.7% bachelors, 17% 12th high school graduates and 7.54% illiterate.
Regarding the age groups, 30.16% were between 15 to 20 years old, 45.9% of the participants were between 20 to 25 years old, 13.11% between 25 to 30 years old, and 10.81% between 30 to 35 years old.
While the findings of Salam Watandar’s survey show that there is no goal for nearly 40% of the Afghan youths participated in the survey, the rate of people migrating from the country has also increased after the recent upheavals.
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