What do “lycéens” think about their new region? By Alice COLLINET, Anne-Florence GOENVEC, Maud LAFOY & Mathilde BARDONNET

Young people have opinions and ideas and the possibility to have their voices heard. Also, we are going to be adults soon; this means we will be able to take part in the decision-making process and the development of the place we - most of us - want to live and work in: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (AURA). This is why we carried out an internet survey from January to April 2017 among “lycéens” (pupils aged 15 to 19) in our new region. Our goal was to get an insight into how pupils perceive their “Région” (it came into existence at the end of 2015). The results, we hope, will be useful for today’s decision-makers…

According to Panorama Statistique : Jeunesse, Sports, Cohésion Sociale Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes – 2015 (an INSEE publication), 15 to 19 year-olds represented about 6 % of the region’s population in 2014.

For our survey, we thought a lot about the type of questions to put to the pupils; they had to be easily understandable, unbiased, and with a choice of answers. With the help of our teacher, M. Faure, we came up with some twenty questions. Then, we had to contact a representative sample of secondary schools (i.e. the number of schools contacted was proportional to the size of the population of each “Département” of the “Région”). Only 140 final year ("terminale") pupils from just 20 schools (out of the 123 contacted) answered...

The first question was about the schools’ geographic positions. 95% of the pupils who answered are from Rhône-Alpes. Auvergne pupils’ opinions are underrepresented (there were no answers from Allier, Cantal and Haute-Loire). We wanted answers from different types of school: most pupils who answered the survey attend a “général” course (85.4 %). This is logical as most pupils go to a “Lycée général.” 12.4 % of the pupils who answered follow “technologique” courses. There were very few answers from pupils who go to professional or agricultural establishments.

The next question was about transport. About 65 % of the pupils use public transport every day to go to school. Public transport is subsidised by the regional council for most pupils. The creation of the new region has strengthened the link between Lyon and Clermont-Ferrand and has had an impact on the transport networks generally. For example, a pupil mentioned that the Illico SNCF train pass can now be used more widely. Improving transport is important because it takes, according to the survey results, more than twenty minutes on average for a pupil to get to school.

Concerning further and higher education, the next question, the few pupils from Auvergne who answered the survey seem attracted by the advantages Lyon can afford. Moreover, more than fifty percent of the respondents (most of whom come from Rhône-Alpes) say they want to continue living in their area (Rhône-Alpes is close to Switzerland and Italy which, in terms of work and business prospects, is advantageous). Do the pupils from Auvergne have the same ambition (to stay in their home area) as those from Rhône-Alpes? Perhaps not, since the Auvergne has relatively few opportunities for young people (in terms of higher education and jobs) compared to other parts of France.

The following question was: “Do you care about the new region?” And the result is unambiguous: 67.2 % of the students answered “no.” The majority of respondents seem not to feel concerned by “politics”. They do not seem to be aware of the impact the regional authority has on their everyday lives and future prospects (though the regional council is in charge of the “lycées” and it subsidises many training and job-creation initiatives). As young people, most of us do not feel we have a role to play in society (this will come when we get jobs). A few pupils did show interest in their region. They get involved in citizenship projects (cultural or otherwise); they feel they are affected positively by all the measures regarding the quality of life and particularly by the events organized in AURA.

Then, we sought to understand if the merger of Auvergne with Rhône-Alpes has caused changes in the lives of some of the pupils since some inhabitants from the Auvergne may have been obliged to move to the Lyon area for professional reasons (many administrative and management posts have been moved to Lyon from the Auvergne area). According to our results, the creation of the new region has had little effect on most pupils’ lives (no moves or additional journeys were mentioned).

We then put several questions to the pupils to test their knowledge of the new regional authority. The majority knew the name of the President (M. Wauquiez), but nothing much else…

Pupils then expressed their opinions about the negative and positive aspects of AURA. According to them, transport, sustainable development, and employment opportunities are aspects that need improving. Tourism and cultural activities are considered strong points of AURA.

63.7 % don’t have a particular opinion about the new region. 23 % are quite positive. 13.3 % are negative. A few pupils wrote that they were opposed to the merger with Auvergne (in sometimes quite cynical terms). In 2014, Rhône-Alpes had a regional budget of €2450 million whereas Auvergne had a regional budget of €675 million; these pupils consider perhaps that there is no advantage (to them) to be saddled with a “poor,” predominantly rural, neighbour…

How can we explain the results of our survey? And what conclusions can we draw from it? Our statistics can only give us a vague insight into how young people in AURA consider their region since the number of people that took part does not give us a representative sample (too few answers, especially from Auvergne, with insufficient variety of “lycée” types from different social milieu included). The fact that so few schools made the effort to take part in the survey (and so few pupils answered the questionnaire) could be interpreted as indifference to the subject by the school authorities and the pupils themselves.

What, then, is the attitude of the average pupil as regards AURA, based solely on our meagre results? It could be described as vague interest and little knowledge. Perhaps this is due to the fact that, as already said, the majority of young people do not take an interest (or are not sufficiently encouraged by schools and parents to take an interest) in matters of regional development and decision-making (they have other priorities: school exams, leisure activities, friends and family, etc.)? It could be due more simply to the fact that AURA was set up very recently; there has not been enough time to make an informed judgement yet (on something that citizens did not have, in any case, much say in the setting up of). Citizens, including young people, do not know enough about the new regional administrative and political setup (and how it will affect them); plus, change is not readily accepted anyway (many feel the loss of their old regions!).

So, incomprehension (why new and bigger regions?), lack of knowledge about how a regional council works or what it does exactly, and a feeling that the new region does not concern them (or care about them) individually, could explain the fairly negative results of our survey. Perhaps though, and more worryingly, the results reflect the fact that many young people are worried about the state of the world (economic, political and social turmoil, politicians accused of incompetence and corruption, the rise of political and religious extremism, the weakening of the EU, etc.); in that context, who cares about regional matters?!

We feel that youth should not become as negative, cynical, desperate or indifferent as so many of the adults are; we can contribute to making a better and safer world. Let’s start at home: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes!