When the national minimum curriculum came into force in 2000 it was truly a document for the new century. It had been three government administrations in the making and was produced after consultations that spanned several years and all interested sectors. And the thought and team effort that went into it showed. It lays down a vision and a direction for educators to follow that tries to take into account every facet of a student's educational development, ranging from moral awareness and national identity to sexuality and scientific adeptness. It places the student firmly in the context of rapid globalisation and technological advancement. It seeks to prepare our youth for a lifetime of change and of constant learning.

Education Minister Louis Galea has just announced a review of the NMC, slightly later than its seven-year lifespan contemplated in the document itself. In launching the consultation process, the minister outlined a rough framework on which the updated version might be built. Linking it to the government's vision of Malta as a centre of excellence in several areas by 2015, founded on high-quality educational provision, he spoke of enabling the country's future workers to compete in a globalised world, of creating an inclusive society, a thriving economy and, above all, of inculcating moral values.

That's very much in line with what the NMC promotes already. Although we are now approaching the end of the decade which it kicked off, it may need only to be tweaked rather than fundamentally rewritten. Entrepreneurship, for instance, seems underemphasised for today's scenario and the minister also talked of bringing in a "learning by doing" approach.

At this point though, the questions that need to be addressed lie equally in the realm of whether school-leavers possess the kind of knowledge, skills and attitudes the curriculum envisioned. In other words, are teachers, and the institutions they work for, delivering on the NMC's aims?

Education is in the throes of a root and branch reform, what with the new college structure just getting into gear, the Education Division having only recently been restructured and assessment systems still being remoulded to fit the relatively new curricular requirements. However, while the instruments of its implementation may not yet be fully in place, a re-evaluation of the NMC would be incomplete without a good idea of how well it has been implemented so far and how effective it has been in terms of the educational outcomes it pushes for.

This means that stakeholders involved in the review process - whom the minister listed as including teachers, parents, employers, unions and NGOs among others - need more information than has so far been made available to them. For example, the strategic plan for the implementation of the curriculum prescribed that all schools should have achieved well-defined targets by the end of June 2005. It would be instructive to know how the schools fared in general and what factors may have held some of them back. If there is a follow-up report that carries this sort of information, it needs to be made public.

Likewise, we are told that, to the government's credit, the number of early school-leavers is falling fast and literacy is on the rise. But to what extent are students leaving school with good thinking and communication skills? Are they educated consumers, media literate, properly bilingual, ready for full participation in a democracy, to quote just a few of the NMC's objectives? While it is good and proper for the minister to ask for everyone's feedback, research is just as important in informing policy. Has it been done? If so, let's have it.