The Malta Labour Party has some cheek.

The education system in our country is not perfect. There are shortcomings that need to be seen to. For one thing, the system is still too exam-based, when we should have started to move towards one that does not put so much pressure on the younger ones. Exams should not be eliminated, but they should not be considered as the only means of assessment. What a student does throughout the year should not be thrown away just because he or she had a bad day.

But for the MLP to criticise the government on the education sector, as if this same sector was top-notch in their years in government, is cheeky. The education sector came close to collapsing under the Labour government during the early 1980s and needed a comprehensive revamp – and got one – when the Nationalist Party was elected to government in 1987.

Under Labour, government primary and secondary schools were in total chaos, so much so that parents started to move their children into Church schools. Even those who could not afford to pay fees made great sacrifices in order to send their children to Church schools, just because they were the only ones that could provide a good education. It was in these years that the examination mania started, with

children as young as nine or 10 studying hard to be among the few who could make it into a Church school. Parents sighed in relief if their children made it; they had to pay up for their children’s education, but they were prepared to take up extra jobs to do so.

But Labour was not happy with this. And as the situation in government schools continued to deteriorate, the MLP government thought it fit to embark on a crusade to close down the Church schools. “Jew b’xejn jew xejn” (Free schools or nothing at all) was the battle cry then Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici used in the government’s fight to eliminate Church schools. The people had then erupted in anger, demonstrating in the streets and forcing the government to reach a compromise with the Church authorities, coming up with a donation system rather than an imposed fee. But the trauma children passed through as they were taken to private residences to continue their schooling is something they still carry with them today.

This was not all. The first term of the 1984-85 scholastic year will be remembered for the nine-week teachers’ strike too. And, when it was over, teachers who took part in the strike led by the Malta Union of Teachers were transferred to other schools – some, who until then had spent all their teaching life in secondary schools, were sent to teach eight-year-olds.

Another measure that was introduced by the Labour government in a bid to kill Church schools was the so-called 20-points system – later reduced to 10 points. This gave students attending government sixth forms a 20- (10-)point advantage over students in Church sixth forms when it came to applying to join a University course. This saw an exodus of students from Church schools at the end of their secondary schooling in order to stand a better chance to enter University.

But University was totally different from the University we know today. There were fewer than 1,000 students at University at the time and the courses available were limited to a few. Some courses did not even open every year. God knows how many students gave up, and how many human resources were lost because the Labour government thought it had the right to impose a limit to the number of young people who went to University.

The MLP has some cheek to criticise the education sector. When the subject is brought up, it should hang its head in shame for having deprived so many people of the opportunity to progress their education.