The Prime Minister’s brazenness was at its worst when he recently listed his party’s perceived successes in the field of education. How can any Prime Minister, who is politically responsible for the shameful record of having the worst placing for his country in the EU league of young people who leave the educational system without any qualifications, be as complacent as Dr Gonzi?

But, after all, the reason is not as difficult to find as one would think. The country is fast approaching a general election and pie-in-the-sky politics has always been the weapon of last resort for the Nationalist party. The Prime Minister’s logic is alarmingly simple. He wants us to forget the shameful record of 42 per cent of our young people who are practically unemployable because of low educational achievement.

He wants to impress us with the amount of money that is being spent on new schools, hoping that we forget how inefficient they are in managing capital expenditure projects in many other areas. And then he promises us an educational nirvana if, and when, the electorate gives him another chance to run the country.

The Smart City project, no matter how desirable, will never be a solution to the thousands of young people who are desperate to be given a new chance to obtain the skills they need to have a reasonable chance of finding meaningful employment. As a political party that sincerely believes in the importance of having a comprehensive educational strategy for all, Labour has concrete plans to rescue our youngsters who have missed their first chance of achieving a decent standard of education.

We need to tailor an educational programme for each individual who is willing to work hard to achieve a level of educational and technical skills that will improve his chances of finding viable employment. This will make heavy demands on our resources, and not just financial resources, but our young people deserve the best, and that is why it is our ambition to get them back to work.

The Labour strategy for education is not just sound when judged on social criteria, but also wise from an economic perspective. Our economy needs to grow at a faster rate if we are to catch up with the more advanced EU economies. To achieve this we have to improve our competitivity and this can best be done if as many of our workers as possible are retrained in skills demanded by a modern economy.

We will, of course, encourage high achievers to reach their potential through a top-notch tertiary level of education. But we will not discard those who need that extra help to achieve a viable level of education. We will help families who have to struggle to survive the high cost of living, which has become endemic under a Nationalist administration, to concentrate more on the education of their children.

We know that to achieve the results that we need in education, as indeed in all other areas of public services, we need to strike a workable partnership with all the other stakeholders involved in this sector. Parents, educators, leaders of industry, and public officials will work together to undertake a root and branch review of our educational system.

What is already functioning well will not be touched, and we will encourage high flyers to make the best of the systems that the state provides for them to achieve their ambitions. But where radical reforms are needed to save our young people from the disgrace of low educational achievement, we will not shy away from promoting these reforms.

We will not judge our success by the money we spend but by the improvement in the levels of education achieved by those who use our public school system. We do this because we believe that all our young people deserve the best, and that is what a Labour government will give them.

www.mangioncharles.com

email; [email protected]