Education, education and more education

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said last week that 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.

The PN councillors, joined by other people from outside the party, spent a day exchanging ideas on different themes. But it appears that all roads led to education. Dr Gonzi said that the government would be investing EU funds in projects that would improve the educational levels of the Maltese.

The Prime Minister emphasised that 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 be flexible.

The educational system is working and we have to keep investing in it is the commitment made by the Prime Minister. Dr Gonzi substantiated his government's commitment to education by saying that Lm50 million will be invested in developing a new MCAST campus.

At the same breath it was stated that in order to find a decent job, one had to have only a modest educational record and the aptitude and will to learn on the job, as training was being provided by many of those companies setting up in Malta. And this is perfectly true today.

However Malta is now at a stage where we should be aiming at encouraging also the "knowledge of rocket science". The Prime Minister might have given the impression that top notch scientists are not essential for Malta's development. But it has also to be noted that he also said that the Maltese have a knack for excelling and it is towards this excellence that we should aim.

One must realise that when the sophisticated industrialists, the ones we should be aiming at attracting, visit Malta on a mission to decide whether to invest here or elsewhere, they do not look only whether the country can supply trainable employees but they also want to check the availability of those much higher up in the grade.

And it is in this area where we need to invest more. Therefore it will not reap its full benefit if we only invest the Lm50 million in MCAST's level of education. We need to invest an equal sum of money in research and innovation. The university teaching and research laboratories need to be equipped to the highest levels.

The new ICT Faculty needs to be a state-of-the-art setting, both in technical and human resources. The investment of recurrent expenditure in science-based courses per student needs to be increased tenfold if we are to approach 50 per cent of what is invested in colleges abroad.

We also need to ensure that, while encouraging young budding scientists, we retain the established ones however few they may be. Malta badly needs both and one should certainly not encourage the retirement of experienced scientists and science-based professionals.

Malta can certainly not afford such a luxury, notwithstanding how much they merit a retirement. Therefore government must ensure that the university has enough funds, as other successful universities do, to retain the old experienced staff, while at the same time promoting and encouraging the young and not-so-young blood. Admittedly, this is an expensive venture. However it is a worthwhile investment.

Malta must go not only for more education but also for a higher quality of education. We must create a culture of education and learning. This should be evidenced not only by the building of a Lm50 million MCAST campus but also by putting in place other small but, just as important, projects. One can just mention the stupid procrastination it is taking to put into place a National Science Action Museum and Learning Centre.

There are other areas that need to receive attention. There was mention by Dr Jason Azzopardi in Parliament about the possibility of building a HealthCity similar to the SmartCity concept. But are we moving in this direction when one notes that the only feature deleted from the luxurious Mater Dei Hospital was the building which was meant to house the educational aspect of health, namely the Institute of Health Care and Medical School? To add insult to injury, now there is also a proposal to change this area into a bus terminus.

One final comment, can the Labour Party promise to commit itself not to freeze this enormous progress in our education system or, better still, to build and expand the investment in education if they are successful at the next general elections? Are they still of the opinion that too much money is being invested in the university?