An ESF-funded project created to help Malta reach EU benchmarks in education has turned out to be a vital tool in recent months, allowing children to continue their education effectively during the pandemic crisis.

As its name suggests, the One Tablet Per Child project has allowed Malta’s Ministry for Education and Employment to provide every Year 4, 5 and 6 student with a tablet computer. But it also created a sustainable, robust framework for digital teaching and learning that has proved vital in recent months.

This project was praised by the European Commission in its official website in an article published in the past days.

The article continues that as well as tablets for students, One Tablet Per Child has also given schools the necessary classroom management software, educational programmes and applications, and given staff full training: almost 2,000 educators across the country have been able to upskill and retrain to make the most of the new technology.

It also reports that since the start of the project, 11,479 tablets have been distributed, and the new framework will support Malta’s efforts to reach its 2020 goals in Early School Leaving and Further and Higher Education – two areas where Malta has been identified as needing significant efforts to reach the EU-wide benchmarks.

The provision of tablets and related software to all Year 4, 5 and 6 students in Malta has been a powerful tool to enhance teaching and learning in primary schools. The One Tablet Per Child tablets also became a critical tool for students and teachers to continue learning and teaching during the COVID 19 school closure.

I add that we also made sure that children coming from vulnerable families have been provided with free internet access, tablets, and laptops on loan during the COVID-19 weeks.

I am proud of all the educators and the Department of Education team who are so dedicated to see to our children’s scholastic needs and their wellbeing.

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This prompts me to write about another story in the international media, which reflects another measure we implemented in our country weeks back, but was only implemented these past days in other countries and only after a personal campaign.

Skysports this week quoted Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford saying that he feels proud after he successfully campaigned for the UK government to change its mind and extend its free school meals voucher scheme over the summer holidays. Rashford said that he felt 'proud' after forcing UK government U-turn on free school meals.

The UK Department for Education had initially said it would not extend the voucher scheme despite an emotional letter to MPs written by Rashford, in which he said, "The system isn't built for families like mine to succeed".

Food vouchers - for £15 a week - will be made available to around 1.3m children in England who are currently eligible for the scheme, and will last for six weeks in what has been called a "Covid Summer Food Fund".

In Malta it was a totally different scenario. We needed no campaigns. Before the closure of schools, around 500 students under Scheme 9 were being given a free lunch by their respective schools. After the schools abrupt closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government and the Ministry for Education and Employment continued with this commitment and process with lunches delivered to the doorsteps of the homes of the children in need.

The Ministry made immediate necessary arrangements so that the lunches remain delivered on a daily basis to the children that need them.

What was implemented in other countries after weeks-long controversies and personal campaigns, we implemented immediately. I am proud of this initiative with which we are supporting vulnerable children.

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Development of Vocational Education and Training was been triggered by a need within the labour market to have highly skilled people to work in occupational sectors. Sectors that were not normally targeted by universities since these were of a vocational and not an academic nature.

VET is a smart choice, leading to excellence in education, high-quality jobs and increased employability.

Vocational Education and Training can be defined as education and training which aim to equip students with knowledge, know-how, skills and/or competences required in particular occupations or more broadly on the labour market.

In Malta the inclusion of vocational subjects starts from lower secondary level. The current secondary education system enables students to have subject specialisation from the third year of studies at the age of 14. In 2011 a national 3-year Vocational Pilot Project was launched offering Vocational qualifications in 4 Vocational subjects in a number of state and non-state schools.

This Government, through the Ministry for Education and Employment has opened laboratories and workshops in all Senior Schools throughout Malta and Gozo. This is to give students the opportunity to, if they wish, learn and train in different vocational subjects - what we used to call crafts, or snajja in Maltese. Topics include Information Technology, engineering, tourism and hospitality, body and hair care, media, textiles, agribusiness, retailing and health and social care. These enable students who after their Form 5 continue schooling and be better prepared for the working world in various sectors.

This ambitious project involved the establishment of laboratories and workshops specific to these subjects in all Senior Schools. In most schools, existing spaces have been converted into these laboratories, but in the Mriehel and Zejtun Senior Schools, the construction of extensions were necessary. Work in all these laboratories and workshops was in the hands of the Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools, under the direction of the Ministry of Education and Employment – a project, an investment, of €10 million.