Editorial

The point brought up by history professor Henry Frendo that the education authorities are contemplating downgrading the teaching of Maltese history has rightly caused quite an uproar.

The arguments being proffered are that it is a contradiction in terms that Maltese history is such an important selling point for the islands while its teaching time is slowly being eroded in public schools. Another point made is that there is a persistent deterioration of the essential identity of the Maltese nation as constructed in its history.

Another University professor, Oliver Friggieri, considered it a move towards a "collective forgetfulness" by a society that favours the now as opposed to anything distant. The Malta Historical Society lamented the loss of appreciation of "the seminal importance of history to the national identity of a country" and correspondents referred with alarm to the Education Division's report, Transition From Primary To Secondary Schools in Malta: A Review, which seems to indicate a move towards diminishing the time used to teach the subject, as well as geography and social studies.

It is true that there is a need for students to be more aware of their European identity. It is just as true the "preferred" topics, because of social and industrial demand, are science and technology, with ICT predominating. Room, it seems, has to be made for an expansion in these areas and, since teaching time has not been expanded to fit the need, then other subjects deemed less relevant to the demands of industry slowly lose ground to what is more apparently significant.

This has already been seen in many schools in the past, with art and music and other non-examinable subjects slowly disappearing. Even that stalwart of physical well-being, PE, has suffered in some schools.

So is it now the turn of history to fall by the wayside, sacrificed on the altar of the country's economy? Be it for this or other reasons, sources quoted by correspondents on the fate of history lessons seem to be official and alarming.

In spite of the way in which it is taught by some teachers - there is a definite need to upgrade the approach to the teaching of history at times - the history of our country is not a redundant topic, to be cast aside as a facile victim of societal exigencies.

It is the cornerstone of an identity that can easily be swamped if not enough care is taken. It is one of the safeguards of the Maltese nation against an all too powerful ascent into identity anonymity, as the media and globalisation strive to collectivise by uniformity.

By all means improve the pedagogical approaches and find ways of integrating it within other, relevant topics but in no way should history be reduced to a beggar for teaching time. Its importance must be preserved and, indeed, promoted. Otherwise, the new generations will quickly discard it and lose it along with anything that is not the here and now. And for that there will be only us to blame.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport has gainsaid those who have expressed their fear of the worst by declaring that "that there is no plan to reduce the importance of history in the curriculum". For the sake of this country, its identity and future generations one truly hopes this is indeed the case.

The national identity is too fragile to marginalise in a way that will leave us all that much the poorer for it.