Claudia Calleja
And the next President is... Lawrence Gonzi
Claudia Calleja asked 10 students 10 current affairs questions... and some of their answers are quite interesting
As the country debated the nomination of Malta's next President and the war in Gaza dominated international headlines, it might come as a surprise that some University students were clueless about such issues.
In a vox pop on campus last week, an English and psychology student actually mentioned Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi as the next President and while a communications student questioned if Gaza was a country.
Only one out of the 10 students approached knew that Joe Biden was the American Vice-President-elect and mention of Renzo Piano, the world-famous Italian architect who will be redesigning Valletta's entrance, drew blank faces. Only two knew who he was and that he has been commissioned to design Valletta City Gate and the opera house ruins, despite the ongoing controversy, particularly on the latter. And, it has to be said, one of them was an architecture student. The other is an aspiring pharmacist.
These were among the replies given by University students in a brief exercise carried out by The Times in the wake of a recent survey showing that fewer than half of them recognised their rector.
Five knew that Gaza is in the Middle East, between Israel and Egypt, and the rest had no clue. When it came to the new President of Malta, who was announced officially last week amid intense media attention, only six correctly named George Abela.
Students seem a little more conversant with Catholic affairs. All of them knew that the Pope is Pope Benedict XVI, even though a few got confused on the number, and some actually mentioned his last name, Ratzinger. Interestingly, half were aware that something the Pope said recently sparked off a debate with regard to homosexuals and the Church.
Even culture and entertainment seems to be quite popular with students. Most knew who tenor Joseph Calleja was and even knew that he would soon be singing with American pop singer Michael Bolton. But even here, in the case of foreign entertainment, only two were aware that the Golden Globe awards have just been distributed, even though most knew that John Travolta's teenage son Jett tragically passed away a few weeks ago.
Although this exercise was in no way representative of the student population, many students mentioned that they were not really interested in current affairs and some were apologetic for not knowing the answers, often blaming it on the fact that they were immersed in exams.
The head of the University's Department of Youth and Community Studies, Marilyn Clark, also defended students' apparent ignorance of what is going on around them.
Rather than blame this lack of general knowledge on students' apathy or disinterest, she said this should raise the question: What are adults doing to encourage young people to participate?
She believes that if students are shown that their opinion matters and given opportunities to take part in activities, they will develop a better sense of efficacy and automatically become more interested.
"Citizenship education, the preparation of individuals to participate as active and responsible citizens in a democracy must be given more importance in the local curriculum," Dr Clark said when contacted.
This need not take place just in the classroom but is more effectively achieved through informal education activities of youth work that is about the personal, social and political education of young people.
"If we want engaged and active citizens we need to invest in them. We need to provide young people with opportunities to become knowledgeable about local, national and global issues. Youth work initiatives sensitise young people to other ways of seeing the world and encourage them to act with others to make their communities a better place," she said.
Education Minister Dolores Cristina made a similar point when speaking about the reforms ahead in the higher education sector.
She said the new strategy on higher education, which is in the pipeline, would tackle this problem by, among other things, enhancing the importance of creativity and independent thinking among students.
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Graham Crocker
Mar 8th 2009, 13:12
David Zammit, There is no such thing as 2000 year old man, therefore the meaning was clear, because you yourself said it " a man who lived 2000 years ago".
You call me Blonde, yet you've understood what I've said . Strange.
David Zammit
Jan 23rd 2009, 10:58
@Graham Crocker
You are having a blonde moment. Socrates was a man who lived over 2000 years ago and not a 2000 year old man!
John Schembri
Jan 23rd 2009, 10:47
We didn;t need this survey form the times to know this - the embarassing scenes from the last pre-electoral debate held at tal qroqq already told us that maltese uni students reflect the rest of us out there in society! And whoever said the vox pop would give the same result if held at city gate, is right!
@Mangion - why do you first refer to your beloved grandpa and then separately to your 'idol' - aren't they one and the same?
Graham Crocker
Jan 23rd 2009, 09:19
@D. MANGION,
Sorry, I might be having a blonde moment here ,but how on earth did Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici mix up studying a 2000 year old man called Socrates with Current affairs?
Graham Crocker
Jan 22nd 2009, 20:00
Quite a sample.
I'm a University student and I knew all the questions.
In their defence, they probably studied much more than I did.
Charles Sammut
Jan 22nd 2009, 18:03
I find Ms Clarke's attitude "What are adults doing to encourage young people to participate?" worrying and even distressing. The thirst for knowledge comes from within. You can take the horse to the water, but you cannot make it drink.
There is absolutely no excuse for lack of access to knowledge in this wired age. But it seems that many students attend university "biex igibu degree u jsibu job tajjeb". What a waste of resources.
Mark Seychell
Jan 22nd 2009, 17:44
Referring to Mr Mangion's comment...unfortunately when I studied SOK last year they never gave us an insight into current affairs. That said, there should be no excuse for not looking through a newspaper once in a while
K. Vella
Jan 22nd 2009, 17:28
I'm a current student and, sure, a sample of 10 is ridiculous, but...
I very much doubt whether a proper survey would yield terribly different results. In all my years spent at University, I can safely tell you that most students are hungry for the outdated textbook arguments and definitions most lecturers feed them (hey, that will score them an extra mark or two in the exam!). But mention something that is either general knowledge or currently in the news, and you get to meet the blank looks on their nice little faces.
With all due respect, but teaching by the book should be left to vocational institutions. At university level, you should learn by researching and discussing your companions' views.
Alas, I seem to be the only one who doesn't buy the popular my-handouts-are-all-the-knowledge-you-need-in-the-world scam propagated at UOM.
(PS. For a proper survey, the population should be the full-time students only. Those attending evening courses -- and I assume these are included in the 10,000 figure -- would hopefully be more updated on what's going on, even if it's only thanks to logging on to news portals to waste time at work.)
D. MANGION
Jan 22nd 2009, 17:15
Matthew Agius- you are right. Freedom of speech and opinion is sacred !
My idol of politics, Dr. Guido de Marco, used to stress that freedom always comes first and foremost.
I agree with you also on the fact that people are free to vote to whomever they wish. 18 years ago the people of Victoria Gozo chose to elect the famous Partit tal-Hard Rock in their local council elections.
But allow me to stress that these 10 interviewed are not isolated cases at the University. Such cases have always existed there and that's what had triggered Dr. Ugo Mifsud Bonnici to introduce the Systems of Knowledge.
But I think that the time has come to review the SOK curriculum to tackle such a lack at our highest stage of our education.
lino bello
Jan 22nd 2009, 16:54
Not surprised at all? Large numbers cannot make up for quality!
J.Bonnici
Jan 22nd 2009, 15:22
Says a lot about our narrow-minded university.
A geography student-teacher I know was not aware that Kosovo became independent. She was too immersed in her class profiles and evaluations to notice.
joe azzopardi
Jan 22nd 2009, 14:42
wow - a grand total of 10 students..hardly representative! How embaressing for the times..
Matthew Agius
Jan 22nd 2009, 14:07
Shame if this is taken to represent the University Population. 10 out of 10,000 is far from representative - and even though it is stated that it is not representative, it is bad light that it sheds on university students.
This is no survey, but simply something interesting to try and fill in the day of a journalist and her space on the paper.
Rightly so, the black vs white (destructive rather than constructive) political scene and the way our media portrays politics in this country, is to blame for the youth's disinterest in current affairs.
@MARIO MIFSuD
Seems like you're one of these 10 students as you ain't got your facts right either. Students were not against the right to strike, but the headlocked situation between govt and umasa, which was taking away student's right to education.
re: stipends - remember that human resources are the only resources we have in this country.
@D MANGION
what's wrong with any of them entering the political scene? it is everyone's right, then it is if they're voted in or not. or are we perhaps afraid of freedom of speech/opinion? --> "writing blogs and articles"
Elaine Sultana
Jan 22nd 2009, 14:02
Being a university student myself I can say I do not fall under this category of 'uncultured students'. And i think I can safely say that this survey of just 10 people absolutely does not reflect the student population at the university. The article does not say whether the students interviewed were foreigners or Maltese [that makes a huge difference with regards to knowledge on Malta's current affairs]. Even walking through campus you hear students talking about what was said on the news or current situations happening abroad. We are always depecited as the serious party goers who are in the university just to prolong our days before starting employment life whilst sucking tax payers money. Well if this be the case go tell that to the new graduate doctors and nurses who are giving you a service, go tell that to newly graduated teachers who are working to give your children a better education, go tell that to a newly graduated law student who can give you legal advice, go tell that to an engineer who creates safe structures and safe machines for our use, and the list goes on.
Why is it always the bad that makes news?
Fabien Sant Fournier
Jan 22nd 2009, 12:44
At univeristy we spend a little more time working on research methodology....why bother asking such a small sample if you already know it will not be representative?
How about using observation as well? If you ever enter the computer labs on campus you would notice students going over the daily headlines online.
Also note that the media involved in the dissemination of news are not considered as academic resources.
Amanda Stitz
Jan 22nd 2009, 11:39
The interviewer is working on the assumption that if she was to ask 10 people at random in the street they would answer correctly to each and every question. In our day to day lives current affairs are fairly trivial and we concern ourselves with our personal duties. It should be noted therefore that we are about to enter the second week of exams and in the defence of the students I think failing a trivial quiz is the least of their worries.
Henry Calleja
Jan 22nd 2009, 11:29
Come off it Ms.Clarke! Why always blame it on adults for any of the students' slips. One need not go into a lot of reading to get to know simple questions. If they simply pick up one of the local newspapers every morning they get all the answers. Now tell me, do students rely on adults to get to know certain details about facts of live? Certainly Not! They rely on friends and individual experiments...even though they have 'exams'!
Mark Seychell
Jan 22nd 2009, 11:11
Please do not generalise that all University students are like the ones above. I myself being a Uni student find myself disgusted and embarassed with the interviewees
mario mifsud
Jan 22nd 2009, 10:57
and these bright 'students' get paid out of our money to enrich their knowledge
they were against the right of lecturers to go on strike
and they will charge us high fees (without giving var receipt) when they graduate
D.MANGION
Jan 22nd 2009, 10:42
I bet that at least one of the 10 interviewed would be interested in entering the political scene!
Then he/she would instantly become a know-it all, writing blogs and articles on this and that, and glorifiying this and demonizing that !
As my beloved grandpa used to say....the real university, is the university of life !