I was extremely pleased when ethics was introduced as an option to religious studies. I also mentioned it favourably in one of my writings.

However, on second thoughts I think that instead of ethical studies, citizenship studies should be introduced. This is because ethics sometimes has negative attributes attributed to it because conservative religious people sometimes use it to withhold progress.

And there’s another thing. I read that 300 students are not accounted for in study projects. Most probably these students suffer from a psychological block.

I remember, when I was very young, that I had a nasty experience after eating a strawberry flavoured ice cream. It is only very recently that I have managed to overcome my aversion to strawberry flavoured food and this only when I do not have an alternative.

These students must have been conditioned to take a negative attitude to learning when they were very young. A parent might have disapprovingly compared them to their siblings or a teacher might have passed negative remarks about them. Imagine what you would feel, if you are classified as last in class for instance. I have written about this in my writing called “The price of prize day”

Before even dreaming of giving a sort of course or training to these students you must remove their negative block. This is an extremely difficult thing to do. What I suggest is to offer these children a programme made up of simple educational games, marketed to these students as just games of course.

While following this programme, a great effort should be made to remove their negative block. They should then be encouraged to follow another programme with the subject matter being the educational games they played and for which they showed a predilection.

We are making great progress in education. Let’s hope we reach these few students also.

Josephine Gatt-Ciancio

Kalkara