Student activism: A track to social development -By Yusuf Abdulbasit Hozaifah

Student activism is interpreted as the involvement of individual students in group activities aimed at defending their interests and bringing about changes in systems, policies, attitudes, knowledge, and behaviours regarding issues affecting university life or society at large.

Activism is a part of the spectrum of the student’s voice.

Activism has surged in the last decade, with young campaigners calling on leaders both on and off-campus to right wrongs, erase inequalities and secure the future of our planet. But this is nothing new: Student activists led the charge during the Civil Rights Movement and were early adopters of environmentalism.

Educators, and especially young educators, have always gravitated toward activism. But young people are more engaged now than they have been in generations, and they are active in a wide array of issues. They took action throughout the presidential election and were considerably more likely to vote than in previous years.

According to the United Nation and African union “Student activism has an important role to play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2063 – including the Continental Education Strategy for Africa 2016-25,” Since higher education institutions are leaders in education, research and innovation, they also have an important role in advancing sustainable development through well-articulated student voices as a tool for social and economic change. Student activism in the context of the student’s voice.

Student activism can be a pathway in achieving harmony, achieving harmony that is: being in a position of compatibility, usefulness, and benefit to other things. Harmony is a balanced understanding that cannot be forced and it transmits greater harmony to others. Troubled minds, tensions and frustrations are inharmonious but they may yield to an effort to restore harmony.

Although student activism represents an effective way of supporting critical thinking, collaboration, organizing, citizenship, identity consciousness, civic engagement, and leadership skills in students through a democratic process students are often excluded from influencing decision‐making. This results from the fact that student activists are often viewed as troublemakers who are being manipulated by political figures.

Not only is student activism a meaningful contribution to society, but it’s a great way to stay connected and up to date. Activism helps develop communication, connections, relationship building, and critical thinking skills. Civic engagement is always a good thing to practice and is essential for life.

Recently, student activists predominantly employ non‐violent tactics and social media platforms to organize their activities and make their voices heard. These tactics include volunteerism, hunger strikes, sit‐ins, parades, blockading roads and buildings, class boycotts, threats of legal action, and play‐acting. These tactics help students practice democracy and acquire citizenship skills which may be in spreading harmony. Thus student students are harmonious in carrying out Activism…they prefer to go on strike than to cause violence. Thus it helps improve students to be a democratic material to the nation thereby constituting peace and betterment to the society.