Government to invest EU funds in job creation, education

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday said he was struck by the fact that the subject of education was raised in each of the seven workshops held during the Nationalist Party's general council, which continued yesterday morning.

PN councillors and people from outside the party yesterday spent a day exchanging ideas on seven main themes: labour, environment, health, Gozo, pensions, education and the family. The theme of the council is Ingeddu s-success flimkien (Renewing success together).

The workshops have become an integral part of PN general councils and the party uses them to listen to the views of others who do not form part of the party and hone its policies across the board.

Speaking briefly at a number of the workshops, Dr Gonzi said the government would be investing EU funds in projects that would create jobs and which improved the educational levels of the Maltese.

"Many of the problems we face today are the result of the educational system of 20 years ago, which shunned computers and did not give people the skills required to help them adapt to change and to be flexible," Dr Gonzi said.

The Prime Minister said the kind of investment the government was attracting was generating a lot of work and one did not necessarily need to have "knowledge of rocket science" to land a good job. One had to have a modest educational record and the aptitude and will to learn on the job as training was being provided by many of these companies setting up in Malta, he said.

"We have to continue to improve our educational system to get the best out of everyone," he said.

Dr Gonzi said the Maltese had a knack of excelling and it gave him great pleasure to hear, earlier this week, that 15 Maltese accountancy students had ranked among the first in examinations for which thousands had sat worldwide.

"The educational system is working and we have to keep investing in it," he said.

Among the many ideas raised during discussions yesterday, some mentioned the issue of longer school hours to make life easier for working parents as well as the use of summer holidays for some 'soft schooling' in order to reduce the pressure and workload on children during the academic year, the reform of the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development and the need for employers and employees, trade unions to see more eye to eye and speak more with a unified voice to be able to beat competition.

Dr Gonzi said he had recently set a number of goals the country had to reach by 2015, but unless the social partners shared this vision, it was difficult for the country to move ahead rapidly.