The Education Ministry’s decision to bring regional schools under one roof and to have specialised attention to their needs is a very welcome move.

The decision was taken in an effort to make education more tailor-made for the children of various localities, and was backed by Cabinet last week. From what can be understood, the Government has already identified Cospicua and Gozo as two regional “colleges” as they will be known. Of course, these two locations will provide ideal testing grounds for the new system.

The idea is to have kindergarten schools feeding primaries, which will then feed junior lyceums or secondary schools. In effect, this will mean that students will enter a college and remain there – with services tailor-made for their needs – until they reach school-leaving age.

To put things into perspective, each and every school head will remain in his post with the same responsibilities. However, as Education Minister Louis Galea put it, there will be an appointed board with a principal to take overall responsibility for each college. This means that one single person will have the final responsibility for each and every student, cutting out the traditional “Oh, s/he was like that when she came to us from primary school, it’s not our fault” mentality. In this way, accountability will become necessary by staff members, from teachers to heads and finally to the principal.

A national benchmarking procedure will also come into effect, whereby all students will have to take aptitude tests which will allow teachers at colleges to see how their students are faring against those of other colleges, as well as private and church schools.

But the secret of the formula lies here – start early. In fact, there are plans to even assess young students in primary school. This might not be done with their being aware of it, and a system could be devised where the student could be assessed in a passive manner.

If benchmarking is left too late, then those children who have learning difficulties (whether it be due to disability, lower intelligence or lack of motivation from home), the problems can be picked up and addressed earlier. If, for example, at the age of 14 a child is identified as being backward compared to his peers, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to get him back on the right track. If, however, such a child’s path is altered during the formative early years, then it is much easier to target and rectify the problem and push the child back towards the rest of the mainstream.

Of course, this brings us back to tailor-made services. Gozo will prove ideal, because the infrastructure is already present – and the system itself is very insular with few schools. Grouping them together and forging ahead with this plan will give government the blueprint they need.

However, the real test will be Cospicua. It is no secret that education lags behind in this area. The college will have its own budget and they might, for example, need more facilitators or social workers there to try, as we have said, to reclaim the lost sheep. They may also need more guidance teachers and this is precisely what is meant by tailor-made schooling.

If government can prove that this system will improve the present completely autonomous (up in the air) system by improving results in the South, they will be onto a winner. But everything depends on Cospicua. The area needs good staff and a principal with nerves of steel. Let’s hope that person can be found. All countries have regions that lag behind, but Malta is small and that is to our advantage. We hope that government can clear up this disparity and give us a better educational system that will allow the country to flourish in the future. But people must realise – this system will take years to fully implement and results will not come from one day to the next. They require good thought, good planning and even better execution.