The third week of the electoral campaign delivered the war of the tablets. Labour was the first to say it would be giving a tablet to Year 4 pupils in all public, private and church schools as part of its road map for education. This proposal was immediately condemned by right wing commentators, who claimed that these tablets are an unnecessary gadget. Within two hours, those commentators had egg on their faces when the Nationalist Party said that it too planned to let pupils use tablets, initially all students across all years, and later changed to starting from Year 3 and spread over four years.

The PN proposal was, in true PN fashion, to be taken with a pinch of salt. Children would only be able to use tablets in a restricted fashion. The PN scheme would cost millions of euros more than Labour’s with no indication of where the money was coming from. It looked like a poorly thought out knee-jerk reaction to Labour’s proposal: a constant theme in this election campaign.

The challenges in the education sector are more than just information technology and who will distribute more tablets to children and young adults. Notwithstanding the successes registered by an encouraging number of students, our country is still in dire need of urgent action to fight illiteracy. It is completely unacceptable that such a high number of school leavers exit our educational system with no or limited literacy skills.

We believe that the way forward is more success for more children and young people. The present administration constantly repeats that it has increased the education budget. Fine, yet is the success in our children’s education only about spending money? We need to delve further and address the areas where the present systems have failed. We owe it to our children, we owe it to their future, we owe it to our country.

Consensus exists that a strong educational system is a prerequisite for job creation. Malta’s performance, as published by reliable international agencies, points at structural weaknesses that need to be addressed with purpose. Despite our strong supply of educators, in general Malta still falls short, with high illiteracy numbers, including IT illiteracy, and low percentages of students making it into tertiary education.

Browsing publicly available data, one can easily identify the co-relation between low income or the risk of poverty, in children and adults alike, and a lack of skills. To us, education is the key to creating a just and successful society. Success in education is not about party propaganda churned out giving the number of university graduates, it is about supplying the necessary tools to enable the younger generations to build a brighter future.

A new Labour government will therefore empower teachers and heads of school to come up with initiatives and projects which focus on individual needs, while providing them with the necessary tools to be able to do so. A new administration will work closely with those into whose hands we daily trust our children. There have been too many reported instances of decisions being taken without due consultation with our educators. We need to listen more to those who know best.

We believe that the stipend system is an important investment in our country’s future. It is a positive aid to ensure that more youths carry on to tertiary education. Labour will retain the stipend system and will also give other tools to help with the development of our education systems. Labour will also increase stipends according to the cost of living index.

Labour’s novel idea to give a tablet to all schoolchildren in the fourth grade of primary school, irrespective of whether they attend government, church or independent schools, is one of a series of initiatives intended to provide our children with more learning tools. It is part of our road map to assist children to be able to achieve more and to bridge the digital divide.

Labour’s tablet proposal is part of a costed, realistic road map, and part of a national strategy on illiteracy that addresses poverty issues. Similarly, we need to fight absenteeism. Children should not be deprived of their education. Our schools must be attractive and provide a positive experience. We owe it to our children who have a right to a good education. 

Our education road map also seeks to increase investment in our public libraries by restructuring the central library, improving resources and campaigning for a more widespread use of libraries.

Labour is confident and energetic, with a road map supported by professionals in each field. We have a positive attitude and will continue to be constructive, no matter how negative the Nationalist Party continues to be. Malta needs change, change that empowers people to contribute to the country’s drive into a modern era – an era built on justice, accountability, meritocracy and collective ambition. 

Dr Zrinzo Azzopardi is President of the Labour Party