Labour leader Joseph Muscat is reported to have said that a new Labour Government will be a guarantee that all our young people, once they have reached the age of 16, will either be in education, in training or in employment. Together with the yet to be understood living wage concept, and the reduction of energy bills when oil prices continue to increase, this guarantee is touted as forming part of the road map of a Labour government.
Who would disagree with such a splendid aim? But the Opposition Leader is actually pledging to transform intentions into action once – and if – elected to government. He is actually promising that no young person of 16 years of age will be out of education, training or employment for a period longer than six months, which is different from proposing to provide opportunities for one and all.
Some might find the proposition ambitious but nonetheless politically attractive. Others would be, to say the least, sceptical. Scepticism may arise from various factors. First of all, multiple opportunities may be made available, but this does not necessarily mean that those opportunities will be taken up by everyone.
Secondly, Labour’s recent history and track record in education leaves much to be desired. The Mintoff era, with its disastrous management of the reform in compulsory education, the aversion for computers and information technology, the closure of the polytechnic nowadays known as MCAST and the denigration of academic study and university degrees has negatively affected a whole generation now in their forties. Memories of the short-lived Labour administration of 1996-98 remind us that stipends were to become a loan instead of a grant.
Moreover, a prominent Labour politician, possibly the future finance minister, has recently expressed doubts as to whether “stipends are sustainable”. Even Labour seems to have forgotten all about its 2008 proposal for the introduction of the “reception class” that was eventually dubbed a “repeater class”.
Labour’s track record in employment is also not one to be envied. The Mintoff era of the 1970s and 1980s which, according to Dr Muscat, was a golden era was actually rife with unemployment. In fact, unemployment, cheap labour and public sector inflation was the order of the day. The bad policies of Alfred Sant’s administration, including the removal of VAT and the introduction of CET and the freezing of Malta’s application to join the European Union, also resulted in higher unemployment than when it had taken power 22 months earlier. At the time, Joseph Muscat was a fervent supporter of Alfred Sant’s policies.
The fourth point giving rise to scepticism is that rather than being a solid and planned scheme, Muscat’s proposal appears as nothing but a poor attempt to offset the Nationalist Party’s huge success in both education and employment, thus making them its strongest selling points. This tactic is part of Muscat’s devised strategy for winning power, which includes the wearing of blue ties and acting middle class while paradoxically adulating Mintoff.
It is not that the present Nationalist government is perfect but it can definitely boast positive results in both the past and the present. Malta has one of the lowest youth unemployment rates in the EU, with 73 per cent of young people continuing their studies after completing secondary school education, and that is a 30 per cent increase from the 96-98 Labour years. Stipends totalling €23 million are paid to 18,600 students and 1,500 students have been granted scholarships. The Youth Inc. programme offers a second chance to those leaving secondary education without qualifications and last year the Employment and Training Corporation trained hundreds of young people and helped find employment for 3,428 people – of whom 1,871 were youths. And the list goes on, in spite of the tough challenges.
Of course, the Labour Leader has the luxury of presenting young people with the illusion that his are a safe pair of hands – at least while in Opposition and not yet tried or tested.