It may not have made the front page headlines that some government initiatives get from time to time but the recently-introduced scheme allowing school-aged children to visit practically any Heritage Malta site free-of-charge was one of the most splendid ideas to have come out of the agency.

According to Heritage Malta, this is one of the largest investments to have ever been undertaken by the agency, and it is an investment that will continue giving in so many ways in the years and decades to come.

And it is not only the younger generations, children’s Heritage Passports also allow them to bring two adults with them on site.

It is true that freebies draw the crowds, and what better way to get both the younger and older generations involved in heritage than to dish out something free?  And this is the gift that just keeps giving, all year and every day.

What Heritage Malta has very cleverly done was to have made the country’s freely heritage available to anyone who has a child in the family – parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles can all get in on the act.

And in the process, the adults, too, can rediscover their own heritage, impart their own knowledge and make it fun for their younger charges who can discover their own country now in ways that were unavailable to their forefathers.

Through this scheme the government has taken a massive step to ensuring each and every Maltese national is more familiar with and even has access to their own heritage at no cost whatsoever, just, as some say, it should be – and to nurture a love for history and culture to be passed down the line.

The government has said the heritage passport will be a legacy, meaning that future generations will also have the same opportunity to embrace their heritage and culture. This is an absolute must, now that the heritage ball has been set rolling.

And perhaps even more importantly, it gets children, and their families, out and about discovering their country, rather than discovering new corners of cyberspace on a device from a soda in this increasingly sedentary lifestyle that we seem to be leading.

It also gives our children a sense of grounding, roots, a sense of where we came from in this fast-paced world and ‘cosmopolitan’ society that is being created around us and which is slowly but very surely enveloping us.

The Heritage Passport is a wholly commendable initiative that promises to bring so many Maltese, present and future alike, in touch with their past, in contact with our country’s rich heritage and foster a new appreciation of where we came from, what we have accomplished, and how we got here.

And, who knows...maybe even plant the seed of an idea in a young mind about where we need to be going, and where that particular young mind may take the country in the future  – a seed that may not have found fertile soil had it not been exposed to the riches of our past.