This week, State schools once again opened their doors to students. Classrooms were filled with pupils, and thousands of children began another scholastic year.

For families, however, the beginning of a new school year should bring more than the excitement of new books and new beginnings. It should also bring confidence that the education system is properly equipped for the year ahead.

Instead, we are once again discussing shortages.

Reports this week indicate that a substantial number of State schools are still facing shortages of deputy heads, while concerns have also been raised about Learning Support Educators (LSEs), guidance teachers, psychologists, social workers and skilled workers.

These are not minor administrative issues. Deputy heads are an important part of school leadership. When these positions remain vacant, their responsibilities must be absorbed by other members of the leadership team, educators and school staff, placing additional pressure on those already responsible for keeping schools functioning.

The start of the scholastic year is hardly an unexpected event. It happens every year.

Staffing requirements, recruitment, replacements, timetables and support services should therefore be addressed well before September. Education cannot be managed as though the reopening of schools were a surprise.

The same applies to LSE provision. For families of children who require additional educational support, the availability of an LSE is not an abstract staffing issue. It can determine whether a child can participate fully in school from the very beginning or indeed, attend school.

The Education Ministry has said that 125 new LSEs will join the department in the coming days. That is welcome. But why do we repeatedly find ourselves dealing with these problems as the school year is about to begin?

This is where the discussion must move beyond individual vacancies and towards management.

What is the government's vision for Malta's State education system over the next five, ten or fifteen years? What are the measurable objectives? How many educators and specialist staff will be needed? How will school leadership be strengthened? Most importantly, how will we know whether policies are improving educational outcomes?

These questions matter because the latest international evidence should make us reflect seriously.

The OECD's newly released PISA 2025 results show that Malta's performance declined in mathematics, reading and science compared with 2022, remaining below the OECD average in all three subjects.

Only 56% of Maltese 15-year-olds reached at least Level 2 in mathematics, compared with 65% across the OECD. In reading, the figure was 52%, compared with 69%, while in science it was 63%, compared with 74%.

The longer-term picture is also concerning. Compared with 2015, the proportion of low-performing students in Malta increased by 15 percentage points in mathematics, 12 percentage points in reading and four percentage points in science.

These figures should not be used to disparage our educators. They should make us ask whether the system is giving educators the conditions, leadership, support and stability they need to do their jobs properly.

A good education system needs excellent teachers, but also enough teachers. It needs LSEs where required, psychologists, guidance teachers and social workers. It needs functioning school leadership, properly maintained buildings and adequate resources. It needs an environment in which children can learn.

We can and should talk about artificial intelligence, digital education, new pedagogies and the skills of the future. But we cannot build the school of the future if we cannot consistently get the basics right today.

The PISA 2025 findings should be an opportunity for serious reflection rather than another political argument over statistics. Malta needs to ask what is working, what is not and what needs to change.

That requires a vision. A vision is not a slogan or another document that eventually gathers dust. It should establish clear priorities, measurable targets, responsibilities and timelines. It should allow parents, educators and the wider public to see where the education system is heading and whether it is getting there.

We should not be reaching the days immediately before schools reopen and still be trying to resolve shortages in essential posts. Contingency measures will sometimes be necessary, but contingency planning should be the exception, not the operating model.

Proper management means anticipating needs rather than constantly reacting to them. It means having the right people in the right places before the first school bell rings and giving heads of school the support they need rather than asking them and their teams to compensate for gaps elsewhere.

As another scholastic year begins, our appreciation must go first and foremost to the educators and all those working in our schools. Teachers, LSEs, school leaders, administrators, counsellors, psychologists, social workers and others carry the daily responsibility of making our schools work.

They deserve our thanks - but they also deserve a system that is properly organised around them. A new school year should be a new beginning. But if the same problems return every September, perhaps the real question is not whether we are ready to open our schools.

Perhaps it is whether we are ready to properly manage them and whether we finally have the vision to take Maltese education beyond the next scholastic year.

Jerome Caruana Cilia is PN MP and Shadow Minister for Education and Citizenship