There was a time when students chained themselves to the steel railings that used to surround the façade of the Auberge de Castille, the Prime Minister’s office.

It happened in 1977, when the political strife in that highly-charged era had led to the closure of the Medical School. The students had been beaten by the police, with a few of them ending up in hospital.

Just a few years later, in 1984, students – and their parents, together with others fighting the oppression of those years – were protesting in the streets because the Labour government wanted to close down Church schools.

“Jew b’xejn jew xejn”, the government was insisting at the time, wanting Church schools to renounce their fees or else close down. Huge demonstrations were held over a period of time and this had forced the government to change its mind.

Different times, different eras.

Today, one only hears about students when there is some rumour about the removal or reduction of the stipend or, as happened recently, when parking rates were increased. Or when they fight over €5 notes raining down from a burst balloon.

No political party would dare suggest that stipends are removed, or cut down. That would immediately mean loss of votes. And yet the stipend system is one that forms the basis of the way our society mollycoddles the next generations.

(The hand-out system starts long before youngsters arrive at University age. In the past few years the government has started the practice of handing them tablets. But that’s another story.)

Let’s put things into perspective. University students in Malta do not have to pay for their tuition, as their colleagues abroad have to do. They receive a stipend for attending classes, unlike what other students abroad do.

They do not have to leave their home, find accommodation in a faraway town (and pay for it) and take care of daily needs such as washing clothes and cooking while attending University, as students abroad do.

Many of Maltese students do have a part-time job, but it’s only done to supplement their income, buy a car and pay for fuel, or go abroad regularly; students abroad have a part-time job to pay for their rent and buy their food. Here in Malta, most University students are still living at home with their parents while they are following their years-long course, and do not need to worry about paying food and energy bills.

In other words, University students in Malta have it easy, and they do not need to make any sacrifices in the same way that students abroad have to.

It’s our system that has made them this way, and this has inevitably led to a situation in which students – and youngsters in general – only concern themselves with what is important to them.

If the whole country is up in flames, they do not care. It’s only if those flames touch them that they react.