“We must invest in education” is what successive Education Ministers have repeated over and over again. The current incumbent, Dolores Cristina, said so again last week when she visited a number of schools where refurbishment work is being carried out.
Summer, apart from meaning a time for holidays for students and teachers, is also a time during which any work to improve facilities or maintain them is carried out in many government schools. It is understandable that this is done. After all, with no students or teachers in the complex, it is much safer to do so and the work can be more extensive.
But, while having new schools and upgrading others is part and parcel of the investment that needs to be done in education, what is equally (or more) important is that the kind of education that is provided results in the “production” of better generations. The students of today are the adults of tomorrow, therefore we have the duty to provide them with better means and skills with which to face the challenges they will have to cope with in adulthood.
Over the past two decades or so, Malta has made great strides forward in this sector. After the turbulent times of the early 1980s, there has been a steady overhaul in the system that has opened up more opportunities for today’s young people.
Suffice to say that the doors of the university, which were restricted to a few hundreds until 1987, were opened up to anyone who wanted to pursue his or her studies, and today the university is bursting at the seams while the number of courses available has increased. The re-opening of the Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology has also provided hundreds of other students with the chance of pursuing a career in various other sectors.
Other changes, such as the setting up of the college structure and the more recent changes in the way primary school children are promoted to the secondary school – a change that is still to come into force – are intended to strengthen the lower sectors of the school chain. It is still too early to say whether these changes will have the desired effect.
There is one other step that needs to be made – and this is to utilise public school facilities more.
As things stand now, public schools are closed from 2.30pm onwards until the following morning, and are shut down during the holidays. With such complexes offering some of the best amenities such as sports grounds and theatres, a stronger effort should be made for such facilities not to be “wasted”.
It is known that the parliamentary secretary within the Education Ministry, Clyde Puli, is taking an interest in pursuing the matter. But little has been heard and most schools remain under-utilised. Apart from being used for drama and sport, the schools are also the ideal place for children to be taken care of outside school hours in order to encourage more mothers to take up a job.
If teachers do not want to stay on with the children, then carers could be employed to do the job until they are picked up by their families. As a result of this, school facilities could be used as childcare centres after school hours.
Local councils should also play their part in this. They can be the liaison between the community they represent and the school authorities, and should involve themselves in the organisation of activities that could be held in the school grounds.