Caritas Director Mgr Victor Grech said yesterday there has been much positive development in education at all levels in Malta, but not enough attention was being given to “educate the heart”.

They were educating the mind with much knowledge and notions, and improving students’ technological abilities but they were not educating the heart to create a generation of young people with sound understanding and values, young people who would assume responsibility for what they did and who could work with others, had clear ideals and gave sense to their life.

Mgr Grech was addressing an Evening of Solidarity with persons who have successfully completed a rehabilitation programme, who were presented with certificates. The activity, presided over by the Archbishop Mgr Paul Cremona, OP, was held at San Blas, limits of Zebbug.

The young people who completed their rehabilitation programme did so under Caritas’ Tama Gdida (New Hope) project.

Caritas offers three residential programmes: at San Blas, at the Harm Reduction Shelter in Birkirkara, and for prisoners, at Dar Sant’Anna in Bahar ic-Caghaq. There is also a semi-residential programme, and five which are non-residential.

In 2007, Mgr Grech said, 664 young people used Caritas’ programmes and services. The average age was 22 years but ages ranged between 11 and 49 years. Those seeking help came from all sectors of society, with 83.7 per cent of them being male, and 16.3 per cent women.

The most common drug was heroin, 75.1 per cent, cocaine 10.7 per cent, cannabis 11.4 per cent and pills and solvents, 2.7 per cent. Two per cent attended university, 10.1 per cent were in higher education institutes, and 64.3 per cent were in secondary education. The rest were in primary education.

Mgr Grech said it was sad that for such a beautiful country, the Maltese were winning or appeared to be leading in areas such as children aged between 11 and 15 years who had only one parent; children being born out of wedlock; and children under 16 years of age who regularly drank alcohol, some of them also binge drinking.

The lead was also in children who had challenging behaviour at school and who were bullies; children who spent hours every day chatting on the internet with persons they did not know; adolescents and young people who saw drugs and alcohol as an essential component for them to be able to associate with others, or celebrate.

And apart from this drugs culture, today they were also seeing the culture of gaming among children and young people. Heavy advertising promoting gambling was ruining people and families, Mgr Grech said.