Malta's participation in EU educational programmes

Malta's adhesion to the EU on May 1, 2004 impacted on practically every facet of Maltese life. Since that day, Malta, as a member of the EU, had to comply with EU standards and regulations and benefits from the same advantages and initiatives. In the pre-accession process (practically from May 1999 to December 2002) Malta negotiated in detail its adhesion treaty to the EU specifying its role, obligations and benefits within the EU but, because there is hardly any regulation by the EU in education and training, this area does not feature practically at all in the treaty. Yet, despite its low profile in the accession treaty, this same treaty has impacted strongly on our education and training systems.

The impact of Malta's adhesion to the EU on education and training was positive and significant notwithstanding the fact that the EU imposes practically no obligation or regulation in these areas as they are still considered as the concern of each individual member state. On accession to the EU, Malta retained its full control on the curriculum and the management of the education system (like all other member states) but benefited from initiatives by the EU intended

(a) to enrich the educational provision of each member state
(b) to facilitate easier freedom of movement of students and teachers and
(c) to provide funds for educational infrastructure.

Since January 2000, Malta has participated fully in the EU educational programmes Leonardo da Vinci and Socrates (now operating as a single programme called Life Long Education Programme) and in the E-Twinning Schools Programme since 2004.

Statistics show quite clearly that Malta's participation in the different actions of these programmes was very impressive. Let me give a few figures to highlight this impressive performance. Between 2000-2006, 1,689 Maltese vocational education students, young workers, trainers and teachers spent time abroad in a similar environment to ours, thus enriching their vocational, personal and social development. In the same period, 691 university students and 202 university teachers spent a semester in an EU university. Also, during the same years, 1,337 EU students spent a semester at the University of Malta. Furthermore, 126 primary and secondary school teachers participated in in-service courses in Europe while practically half of our primary, secondary and other schools participated in Comenius projects.

This impressive participation in these programmes in a relatively short time was totally funded by the EU which contributed 10.5 million euros for this participation.

In the E-Twinning Programme, about 200 Maltese teachers and 95 schools with 189 projects are registered for this programme and the EU is providing €173,849 for management of this programme. One of our schools, Mater Boni Consilii School, Paola, did so well in these projects that it was listed as one of six finalists from 350 schools participating in a EU wide competition for the best E-Twinning Project in 2006.

Besides listing these impressive facts, one needs also to analyse the performance and results achieved by this participation. I am not in a position to quantify fully the positive impact of this participation in the EU programmes, as much of the impact is unquantifiable but, like me, all readers can easily estimate the beneficial and substantial impact this participation had on the personal, social and educational development of each individual participant (both short and long term) and, the multiplier effect such participation had on their friends, colleagues and their families. It is easily noticed but not easily quantified. An in-depth study on the effects of this participation will more effectively bear out the strength of this positive impact.

However, we can all effectively confirm the positive impact of such experiences on the educational/vocational development on our students when working, studying and living in a different environment with more variety of characters, teaching systems and equipment than in our small institutions. Such an experience leaves an indelible positive mark not only on the student's academic formation, but also on the personal and social development of the student. The Maltese student has to face life without the daily support of his parents and lifetime friends when he embarks on the Erasmus and other experiences and, everybody agrees, that, on their return to Malta, they feel better off for this experience.

These programmes have instilled a sense of self-confidence in our participating students and teachers because they tested their abilities not only with Maltese colleagues in environments familiar to them, but also with other EU colleagues sometimes even coming from better equipped and more developed environments. A noteworthy achievement I noticed over the years, especially in the Comenius and also E-Twinning programmes, was the graduation from the level of participants in the first years of our participation to the level of leader/initiator of projects later on. Our teachers quickly absorbed the learning curve and proved to be as equally capable as EU teachers. Now our teachers are initiating and planning projects and they invite EU schools to participate. To my mind, this is indeed a proud achievement.

On the other hand, while our students experience Erasmus in the EU, also EU students experience Erasmus in Malta. In fact in six years, over 1,300 EU students spent a semester in Malta and this surely enhanced the internationalisation of our University and benefited also our students. One side effect of this influx of EU Erasmus students in Malta is the effect on incoming tourism in Malta. A brief calculation, based on a Lm1,000 spending in Malta by each student during the semester, would yield the Maltese economy the sum of, circa, Lm1.3 million. These long-stay tourists had surely an economical, besides educational impact on Malta.

The Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci's experience for our students and youths is even more relevant and positive to them than for many other EU students. Our students live on the southernmost fringes of the EU and in the smallest country of the EU and thus, their opportunities for variety of choices and experiences are very limited especially when considered to others in larger countries or in the centre of Europe.

Other notable results of our participation in Socrates was that, amongst others, the University of Malta has secured more than 600,000 euros to start a European Masters degree course in heat treatment and surface engineering which will be coordinated by the University of Malta. Our University has teamed up with four universities in Germany, Hungary, United Kingdom and Romania and a number of enterprises, including SMEs in both Romania and the UK. This case of joint venture with the EU providing the funds and member states providing the academic personnel is a clear example of how Malta has benefited from its adhesion to the EU. In this case, Malta proved it is also capable of leading others, not just taking part. And this was not an isolated case.

The University also felt the beneficial impact of Malta's adhesion to the EU in the enhancement on the study of the Maltese language due to brighter employment prospects for graduates in Maltese in EU. Since Maltese has been accepted as an official language of the EU it has resulted in creating hundreds of jobs for graduates of Maltese as translators and interpreters in Brussels. This, in turn, created a need for new courses in translating and interpreting and the EU-funded ad hoc courses for these areas to be run by our University.

One of the initiatives of the EU in education and training is the promotion of the Life Long Learning Concept in today's world. This concept is also one of the cornerstones of the Lisbon Agenda and the EU has also been pushing this concept forward by providing funding to member states to organise conferences and seminars to consolidate this concept. Malta also benefited from these funds last February when the AKS, with funds provided by the EU, organised a very successful and well attended two-day conference entitled "Qatt mhu tard li titghallem". But this was not the only such conference to be organised for this purpose. Other funds for Life Long Learning are also provided under the Grundtvig Action of the Socrates programme which is specifically aimed at improving the quality of adult education by promoting the development of a European dimension in this field. Between 2000-2006, Malta also benefitted from EU grant of €465,069 for funding of 43 learning partnerships projects and 24 training grants. These funds surely impacted on Malta's provision for this emerging area of our education system.

Malta, now being a full member of the EU, is consequently, also a participant in Eurydice (the Eurostat branch for education) and, hence, our educational statistics are easily comparable to EU and the other individual member states' statistics. Malta uses the same yardsticks and measures as all the other 26 member states and, hence, our educational planners and educators can plan, monitor and judge our educational performance much better.

All in all, participation in these programmes has further internationalised Malta's outlook on education. It gave our teachers and students a broader outlook and new international experience and our teachers and students have really risen to the occasion and proved their worth equal to EU colleagues.

(To be continued)

Mr Sammut is the former national coordinator of the European Union Programmes Unit of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Employment.