The Nationalist Party yesterday highlighted its education proposals for the coming five-year term, promising to pump millions of euros into the country's educational system aimed directly at reaching high EU benchmarks particularly among post-secondary students.
With the new St Benedict's College in Kirkop serving as background, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi told a press conference that by the end of the next legislature his party wants to increase the number of students who choose to continue studying after Form V from the present 70 per cent to 85 per cent of all Maltese 18-year-olds. He expressed confidence that this is achievable following an increase of 30 per cent over the past 10 years.
"Through heavy investment, post-secondary students increased from 40 per cent since Alfred Sent was in power to the present 70 per cent. It doesn't need convincing that the PN is the natural party for education," Dr Gonzi said.
The proposals are aimed at pushing Malta's educational levels to new heights and Dr Gonzi said his second government will increase the budget for the whole of the post-secondary sector, including the University, Mcast, the Junior College, the Higher Secondary and all other institutions. "We are promising to build a €115 million (Lm49,370,000) state-of-the-art new Mcast campus in Corradino, which will cater for all the courses offered by this institute, currently scattered across different areas of the country.
We will sustain the present system of stipends, which at present benefits 15,000 students, focusing on specific professions we need most, such as IT, medicine and other scientific studies. Basically, we decided to put our trust and money in our younger generation because this is the way forward for our economy."
Other projects in this sector include a fibre optic link between the University and higher educational institutions in Northern Italy in order to start common research projects.
On the primary and secondary levels, a PN government will continue to change the system of different schools and different levels into a unified and continuous system based on colleges.
"Our children are still having to pass through a trauma of exams to move from primary level to secondary level. While children will still be assessed to test their skills, this will become a 'normal' exercise and children will not have to face a high hurdle at such a tender age," he said.
Dr Gonzi said all government schools will be transformed into the college system, which he said produced excellent results when it was tried on an experimental basis.
Another target was to have a computer for every four students and a laptop for every teacher. This will make Malta one of the most advanced countries in the educational IT field in the EU, he said.
Turning to kindergartens, Dr Gonzi dismissed Labour's reception class proposal, calling it "a waste of a year in the life of all Maltese students without any real need for it". Labour's half-baked proposal will mean that Malta's EU education targets will be thrown out while all students will lose a year, even those who don't need to.
"All parents should be warned that this proposal will mean that their children will achieve their goals a year late. Is this fair and necessary? Is this another Labour experiment at our expense," the Prime Minister asked.
Dr Gonzi recalled Labour's track record of experiments in education every time it was in power such as the closure of Church schools, the numerus clausus at the University and the reduction of stipends during Alfred Sant's government.
During the press conference, One News journalist Charlon Gouder insisted on asking about Minister Ninu Zammit. Mr Gouder stood up and cried foul, as One TV cameras rolled, when Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil, who was chairing the press conference, cut short his intervention.
Invited on three different occasions to put questions on education, Mr Gouder insisted on asking about Mr Zammit but Dr Busuttil carried on taking other questions.