My entire political life revives around the youth – I am grateful that I had the opportunity to work alongside youths for the past sixteen years, through student organisations and up until a few years ago as a President of the Labour Youth Forum. For this reason, and also in light of the fact that this week is European Youth Week, and the beginning of MATSEC Examination, it is pertinent for me to talk about our education system as this has a direct effect on our youths.

Over the last few months and in the run up for the European Parliament elections, I had the opportunity to meet students and discuss with them their projects and plans for the future, their concerns and ideas on how to improve the current educational system, and on top of all, what they want to see more of from the European Union. To no surprise, various students spoke of an education system that recognises all capabilities, the need for more European Funds and more trans-national opportunities.

Although much has been done by the current Government to enhance the system, I believe we have a long way to go. We need to focus on the transition from a theoretical to a more practical system. To this day and age, we are still requiring our students to sit for three-hour exam sessions which determine their future, giving lee way to anxiety, depression and other mental challenges that students face today.

I believe this is a system which fails students – we know as a fact that our system is not producing enough young problem solvers, but rather it is creating parrot-like individuals who are only being trained to absorb information and reproduce it, and who sometimes also believe that those capable of generating ideas and express non-mainstream opinions are arrogant. Unfortunately, our society values academic qualifications more than rationality, problem-solving skills, creativity and the ability to analyse. This should not be the case.

It should not be the case, because there are people with different needs, and different capabilities. There are different kinds of intelligence, some might be academically gifted, others may be gifted in creative arts, music and sports. As such, we must fully maximise their potential in all areas of capabilities. We must do so by accessing European Funds to help these students, to create infrastructural projects that provide room for these students to flourish, and to focus more on giving our students the opportunity to travel and study abroad. Such funds range from Creative Europe and European Social Fund to Erasmus+ Sport and many others.

I believe that the improvements based on the Bologna Process were vital, but I am certainly sure that we can do much better than that. Part of the mission of a MEP should also consist of adequate promotion of these opportunities to ensure that our students tap into these European Funds and make the best use of them for their personal growth and development. At a domestic level, we know that this Government is committed to maximise the absorption of EU Funds and we have a guarantee that there won’t be a recap of 2008, wherein the administration of the day failed to use and lost the possibility of disseminating EU Funds available to improve the lives of our citizens.

I feel that it is our duty as politicians to provide our citizens with an enhanced educational system for our current as well as future generations. We must create educational programmes that help young students and those in life-long education programmes to realise and maximise their capabilities, irrespective of whether they are academic, in sport or in art.

From personal experience I know that our educational system can be very stressful at times and thus, I appeal to students to talk things out with their school councillor or psychologist should they feel it is necessary; it’s ok not to be ok. In conclusion I would like to wish each and every student, who is either sitting for their exams or finalising their dissertation, the best of luck. Stay focused and work hard - your future is bright.

Alex Agius Saliba is a Labour Party candidate for the European parliamentary election