Addressing our skills deficit

For years I was accused of being a prophet of doom whenever I pushed to put on our national agenda the need to address several structural problems in our education system: low standards in primary and secondary education, illiteracy, poor school environments, a skills deficit among our young people that puts their (and our country's) future at risk.

A few weeks ago I was joined by another prophet of doom: European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs Stavros Dimas, who told MaltaMedia.com about Malta's low levels of education among the workforce and skills' mismatches: "The high rates of early school-leavers, of illiteracy and of the low-skilled are particularly worrying. Raising general educational levels, reducing school dropouts and raising participation in training, in particular for the low skilled, are key priorities. Efforts to include workers' and employers' representatives in the development of a more systematic approach to education and training should be pursued".

This vindication of my (and the Labour Party's) position comes as no consolation to me. Last February, addressing a group of European journalists, I stressed the point that our skills deficit threatens (much more than our structural deficit in our public finances) our economic prosperity, social cohesion and democratic citizenship. Every year, half of our 16-year-olds, 2,000, are leaving secondary school without passing their exams in English, mathematics and Maltese.

The rate of 18-year-olds in education is still low (60 per cent). We have very few graduates in mathematics, science and technology. At three per 1,000 of the population we are at the bottom of the pile in Europe, only higher than Albania and Macedonia. Seventy-five per cent of the young people registering for work lack the functional literacy required for the knowledge economy and society of the 21st century. These young people are not only unemployed but also unemployable and risk being caught in the vicious cycle of social exclusion, crime and violence.

Citizens living and working in the knowledge-based society and economy of the 21st century require higher education qualifications, more advanced core competencies and problem-solving skills if they are not to be excluded and marginalised, and with them Malta and Gozo.

The Nationalist Party has now been in power since 1987 (except for two scholastic years between 1996 and 1998). We need a change in government if we are to address properly the structural problems of our education system, which have been neglected for so many years.