Revisiting teacher education

The importance of education for any country's success is hardly ever disputed. What is often debated is how best to impart education with limited resources to obtain optimal benefits that satisfy the country's needs. Though many would agree we do not have the worst education system available, few would deny that it needs revamping.

No one would belittle the excellent contribution over many years of the teachers' training colleges and subsequently the Faculty of Education, to educate our teachers. But the time may now be ripe to revisit and perhaps redefine the mission statement of what is perhaps the University's most significant faculty.

It may be that the faculty is diluting its very limited resources. Certain areas such as Psychology are certainly not the faculty's raison d'être. Is the Department of Psychology perhaps draining the faculty's resources and taxing its output? Psychology may serve its functions better if it is an institute on its own serving various faculties such as those of medicine and surgery, law, and education itself, and other institutes such as those of health care and forensic studies.

It is not the first time that subject teachers are expected to teach an area on which their knowledge is limited. One should therefore look at whether subject teachers at secondary level would be better qualified if they first obtain a B.Sc. or BA degree in the relevant subjects and then follow a revamped course in pedagogy such as a reformed and updated Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE).

It is clear that the country not only needs to revise the curriculum of our primary and secondary education but also to raise a full-scale national discussion on the role of the Faculty of Education. The faculty needs to examine and reform itself. It must build upon the undeniable and enviable past successes that have attracted a substantial number of students, and at the same time progress forward.

Our educators are now rightly focusing on promoting resilience in the classroom. Attention is being given to dealing with social, emotional and behaviour difficulties in Maltese schools. On Thursday, a seminar is being organised by the European Centre for Educational Resilience and Socio-Environmental Health in collaboration with the Education Directorates to present a three-year national study on the subject.

Carmel Cefai from the Faculty of Education has published extensively on the subject. He says it takes resilience to succeed, that is, to overcome the odds, to thrive in the face of adversity and to succeed despite the barriers. Teachers need to be well-trained and it is certainly the faculty's duty and the mission to equip them with both academic and pedagogical tools to help students coming from poor backgrounds to grow into happy, successful adults.

This is what the faculty is endeavouring to do and, one must admit, with significant success. However, the faculty may need to consider shedding appendices which are not essential and allowing specific subject teaching in the hands of experts in the field to concentrate on areas such as empowering our teachers to promote resilience in the classroom.