Euro lessons in curriculum

As the countdown to January 1 ticks on, students and teachers are busy working out Abacus sums and reading activity books.

Various activities were planned out by the Curriculum Department aimed at getting students and their teachers acquainted with the new currency.

The euro will not only affect our daily transactions but will affect the education a child receives at school.

Like adults, students must learn the change in monetary values and must get accustomed to the new coins and paper notes.

Having a common European denomination can now be understood within a local perspective. This will change the way students view the EU and Malta's membership.

Like a common language, the new currency will connect Malta to many other countries. Students will realise that travelling to such countries will not require us to purchase a different currency.

The currency that their European peers use will be the same currency that they will use to buy books, games and clothes. This will stimulate the students' idea on unity and diversity.

Students will have to get familiar with the denomination in textbooks - not just mathematics textbooks but also books on languages, sciences and other subjects.

Yet, children and teachers are not the only persons who stand to benefit from the activities.

Raymond Camilleri, director of Curriculum, explained that parents and families are roped in the process.

"The point is that children speak to their parents about what they have done at school. This in itself is already leading to an exchange of information. The extent to which it is happening depends on the extent to which parents speak to their children. Naturally this will take place mainly in the primary sector."

The exchange of information has spread to families, which, together with teachers, provided positive feedback, a ministry source said.

Just like the changeover process, the list of cross-curricular activities to mark the euro learning process was spread over several months. At the beginning of the scholastic year, lessons were carried out using the euro instead of the Maltese lira, to make the students familiar with the change in everyday practice.

In primary schools, sums in euros were being included in the mathematics textbooks Abacus, while the National Euro Changeover Committee (NECC) produced 11 new books for every primary and secondary level. The activity books for primary schoolchildren and workbooks for secondary students were distributed to every student in state, Church and private schools. Teachers also underwent training, both through courses organised by the Curriculum Department, as well as through staff development seminars organised by the schools.

Two plays were staged by the drama centre within the Curriculum Department, while the Arts centre is putting up exhibitions of students' sketches, paintings and other works of art relating to the new currency. A number of these will be exhibited again in a national exhibition early next year.

The primary centre of the department helped integrate lessons on euro in subjects like mathematics, science, English and geography.

In secondary schools, the English centre encouraged students to write poems and essays about the euro, while the History centre made use of their website (http://schoolnet.gov.mt/history) to produce quizzes and provide links from where students can read more on the new currency.

Another website which provides information for teachers and primary schoolchildren about the currency and the member states is the Department of Technology in Education website (http://schoolnet.gov.mt/ue), which also includes an interactive whiteboard multimedia programme on the subject.

Earlier this year, the department worked in collobaration with NECC to launch a website for students and teachers dedicated to the euro. The website (http://www.skola.gov.mt/euro) contains information and games.

An exhibition is also being set up by the Science centre of the Curriculum Department targetting students aged eight to 11 from state, church and independent schools. The exhibition runs until Sunday week.