In these extraordinary days we are facing as a country, I am really proud of the sterling work being done by all educators who are doing their utmost to continue providing our students with the necessary education using technology.

With the schools closed for the rest of this scholastic year, we are also utilising our spaces and equipment to the benefit of those who need them. One such case was the scope of a recent visit with my colleague Silvio Schembri.

Our State Schools and Malta Enterprise teamed up and are supporting the Invent 3D project in the production of COVID-19 protective visors through the use of 3D printers to ensure that frontline staff at Mater Dei Hospital get this very important piece of protection wear that is required in these circumstances. This will enhance the wellbeing of our medical professionals, healthcare staff, nurses and cleaners working at hospital.

The Ministry for Education made Żabbar Primary School hall immediately available to help out and enhance the functioning of this project.

The school hall is now hosting around 45 3D printers, collected from various public schools around Malta, to support this social and commended initiative by David Sciberras. Sciberras, owner of Invent 3D, is supplying these visors free to Mater Dei hospital.

During the visit, I explained how these 3D printers create a tangible object. In our schools and educational institutions, we have 45 3D printers, which due to the present situation were not in use. As soon as we heard about Sciberras’ initiative, we sought to help in this cause by setting up this 3D printer farm and by doing so we helped out in the production capacity. With this collaboration and addition of these printers, we are now producing around 600 visors every day for doctors, nurses and all staff in hospitals dealing with COVID-19.

As my colleague said, through this initiative the government is joining forces with the industry and the community to ensure that those at the frontline are given all the resources required to protect themselves while on the job helping others. The €10,000 grant provided by the Ministry for Economy through Malta Enterprise is aimed at helping this great initiative to provide the much needed scarce equipment through local efforts and innovation.

More resources shall be made available where necessary to have these COVID-19 protective visors distributed freely to other public hospitals and governmental residential care units. This is a national cause whereby all our resources are being mobilised to make sure that our country has what is needed to fight this pandemic. In fact talks are underway with other industry manufacturers on the production of other essential equipment.

I join David Sciberras in thanking other industry players such as Playmobil who are also supporting this cause by providing plastic material for the visor part of this product and to the numerous volunteers for helping to run the printers all day and youths within the community who also made their 3D printers available for this cause.

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All educators are being encouraged to find the best method to hold continuous communication with their students remotely. I visited the University of Malta to join an online lecture.

In the times we are currently living in, we are seeing educators show how much they truly have their students at heart. We will continue to encourage students to carry on with their studies by means of online learning since we, as a Government, are committed to seek those decisions that are in best interest in favour of the educational system which will benefit our children.

All of this is only possible with the support that is being given from the schools and educational institutions that educators and lecturers are a part of. All educators can ask for support in this directly through their schools or through the dedicated website and helplines https://digitalliteracy.skola.edu.mt/. An educational resources repository is now freely available on www.curriculum.gov.mt and it is constantly being updated.

Again, I thank parents and guardians for their co-operation and for the manner in which many are supporting their children while at home, coping with work and certainly with other facets of their lives. I also thank all students, who, despite undergoing a very challenging time, are remaining focused on their education and are co-operating fully to make these online teaching and learning systems work.

I also visited a classroom at the St Thomas More College Marsaskala, St Anne Primary School where a lesson was being conducted by an educator with her students connecting remotely from their own home. Usually those lessons are carried out from the educator’s own home.

During this visit I had the opportunity to see the process currently being undertaken for primary school students to keep in touch with their respective teacher and continue with their studies through the help of iLearn. The teacher sends educational work through the website and children access it and submit it back to the teacher through their tablets.

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On another note, answers and marking schemes, especially for older students, could be a valuable tool to enable students to self-assess their work. The Examination Papers section on

www.curriculum.gov.mt provides a vast amount of past papers and marking schemes for the Annual National Examinations of State Schools. These are freely available for all students from all sectors. A number of schools provide similar resources through their respective portals or online presence.

The MATSEC Unit will also be uploading a number of available marking schemes for a number of SEC subject past papers. This resource is available free of charge together with past papers on the MATSEC website:

https://www.um.edu.mt/matsec/pastpapers/.

During this difficult period, the educational sector is showing exemplary professionalism and commitment by working together to overcome such a challenging situation. The major life lesson from this experience is the personal and collective rediscovery of meaning and priorities. The Government is committed to continue working to ensure that this will continue in the coming weeks.