Education realities

REALTA` on One TV last night discussed the reality of our education system today, the apparent trends, the results we are achieving in this vital area, and the inherent weaknesses that mean many of our children are still being left behind despite huge and substantial investment from all of our taxes.

The reality is that we spend as much as €6000 per child per year in the state system, as much as do the Finns. Yet unlike the Finns who only have a tiny percentage of children who do not go on studying after school, here in Malta a little more than 36% choose to, or are unable to continue their studies after school. This compares to the 10% in Finland who do not continue their education after the compulsory school leaving age.

So why do so many of our children leave education early? What PN policies are being adopted to address this? For some it is due to economic necessity, for others it is far too often the case that our children have not obtained the qualifications required to go on studying. Others of course, as is their right, choose to leave school and go to work.

But it remains the case that we spend a lot on education and are perhaps not yet getting the value for money that we, and our children and teachers should.

The President of the Malta Union of Teachers Kevin Bonello rightly questioned where exactly this €6000 per child is going, as teachers in schools are still experiencing difficulties in being deprived of basic teaching resources. He said teachers should be involved more in decision making and reforms well planned and implemented. Joe Vella Bonnici, a university lecturer questioned the actual quality being delivered too. The riposte of the Education Minister to this vital point was simply a jibe that he was being negative. Since when is realism on Realta being negative?

Evarist Bartolo, Labour spokesperson on education, questioned how statistics are being used and collected and stressed the importance of far better information statistically so that policies in education will be based more on the true realities faced by the education system today. His focus was very much on how more children can advance and reach their individual potential whatever that is. He said much more can be done to enable children to succeed in education but children with learning difficulties, children at risk of poverty and children who learn by doing are not catered for in our system. He said Labour is against charging money for vocation subjects in schools and said the PN is making education a political football by repeating the lie that stipends would be removed.

Like her colleague Joe Cassar, spokesperson on health a few weeks ago, the Minister for Education not once identified a policy that the NP is going to use to lessen the large proportion of children who stop studying, nor even our high rate of young people leaving school unequipped for the world of the 21^st century. Problem denial appears to be the only PN weapon left in the Gonzi PN armoury.