On the 18th birthday one gets on the doorstep of adulthood, gets the right to vote and is allowed to obtain a driving licence. Many would have made up their mind about their future.  Difficult as it may be for our younger generation to decide, our academic and vocational education institutions support various career paths in more way than one.

In this regard, Evarist Bartolo, Minister for Education and Employment, recently floated the idea to increase compulsory schooling from 16 to 18.  This requires reflection and deserves a national debate free from any political undertones. 

Hopefully such a debate will ensue away from the political fray. I hope that the purpose of this idea is to instil in students the eagerness to learn basic skills at minimum, which should help them later in their lives. The idea is noble and could not have been better, but life is what it is and no amount of idealistic motivations would change that. Increasing the compulsory years of schooling for students may increase frustration and would make schooling less of an opportunity to learn and a less positive experience to more students.  

I dare pen that most people believe that only academic and vocational qualifications will pave the way to a successful career and fulfilment in life. It is true, in the mind-set of many, higher academic and vocational qualifications are equal to better employment opportunities.  To an extent, this may be true. However, in many cases, and from my experience, those who do not obtain any form of formal qualification from schooling still lead a positive life, work hard, build a family, have their ups and downs, go on vacations and carry on with life like all others.          

There is no doubt, academic and vocational qualifications are, and will remain, necessary in a fast changing employment world. However, from a closer look at the labour market, the need for a range of people to do all sorts of jobs is and will remain necessary.  Therefore, those without academic or vocational qualifications should not be considered as failures.   

Although not all workers acquire some form of certification during their schooling years, those who do not may still have lucrative jobs. With limited academic or vocational qualifications, street-wise risk-takers have ventured into self-employment and run small and medium sized businesses. The more daring qualify as leading entrepreneurs, providing sound-footed employment to hundreds. One can hardly label these as failures.

The ongoing efforts of policy makers, parents, and teachers to assist students improve their literacy capabilities’, skills and knowledge are recognised by all including myself and should be further encouraged with all available means to unleash our human resources potential. However, notwithstanding these efforts and huge financial investments, a number of students still fail from attending schools. Students, or rather their parents or guardians, still produce reasons for this, and although a reason may even be valid it should remain unacceptable. In this regard every effort should be made to ensure that, irrespective of their age, students attend schools. This should not be a question of courts and fines. Rather, it should be the guidance and assistance of professionals, who should actively seek the reasons for such absenteeism and take corrective measures.  In these cases, a multi-disciplinary team should look into the matter. Guidance and assistance should not be erratic and must, from a very early stage, identify students with schooling difficulties and assist them and guide their parents.  Raising the school leaving age to 18 will not help these students.      

In the rapid changes which have revolutionised the place of work, workers had to change work practices, adapt and adopt to beat cut-throat competition in a globalised market.  Despite peaks and troughs, Malta, though small in size, have managed to take on these new challenges and I trust will continue to do so in future albeit the ongoing debate about the national economic performance.           

The schooling years should be aimed at providing students with a pleasant opportunity to acquire the required competencies to ensure their employability.  Unfortunately, this may not be the case for all.  This will not change, and may even get worse, if schooling becomes compulsory till the age of 18.

If raising the school leaving age ensures that students acquire additional skills through compulsory education, then that would be positive.  However, the success of such a policy depends on the quality and the choices available. It would be useless to keep students in education institutions if they are not given the education that they need but an education with a one-size fits all. Raising compulsory schooling till 18 will only become positive if a student tailored-made approach for those who did not obtain basic skills during their years of primary and secondary schooling is adopted. 

Possibly, a well supervised traineeship scheme and on-the-job training with the full participation of the private sector would be an option to address the issue of early school leavers. Despite the difficulties that some students may encounter, no stone should be left unturned and every effort should be made to help maximise every student’s potential and making schooling a positive experience to all. 

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