Will Club 3-16 disrupt Catechism classes?

A short while back the Education Minister, Dolores Cristina, announced the programme Club 3-16 which is intended to help working mothers by giving them the opportunity to leave their children in these clubs after school hours while they are still at work. There is no doubt that this programme is aimed at encouraging women to enter the workforce.

The Holy Name Society believes that this programme can have very positive results. Children will be supervised by trained adults. This is certainly better than leaving children alone at home where most times they have access to the TV set and to the computer and end up being exposed to programmes which are certainly not suited for their age. We have often heard of children and young adolescents chatting on the computer with adults who unfortunately have ulterior motives. We have heard stories where children in other countries have been lured to adults who turned out to be paedophiles and who have ended up being abused, raped and, sometimes, even murdered.

Thank God the situation in Malta has not reached such a shocking state, but we have to admit that as has happened abroad it can also happen to children in Malta and Gozo. Nowadays children are very computer literate. The computer has become an integral part of our life and is accessible in almost every home. Children who are not supervised by responsible adults can easily be led to watch or participate in programmes which are aimed at the adult viewer and/or user.

The Holy Name Society has two main worries to contend with regarding the 3-16 clubs. First of all the Society considers the age of three as too young for children to be away from their parents especially their mother, for such a long period of time.

We have asked the opinion of a number of psychologists who all commented that this can have disastrous effects on such young children. Imagine, a mother working full-time from 7 a.m. till about 5 p.m., picking up her child and going home exhausted physically and sometimes even mentally and then having to see to the chores and to the need of her little one! There is no doubt that it would be difficult for the child to feel cared for, to feel comfortable and to feel very secure.

The Society's second worry is that children in the age brackets that require them to attend Catechism lessons will probably be denied this opportunity. This situation is certainly going to cause a conflict of interest between parents who send their children regularly to the Catechism classes and those who cannot do so because their children would be in one of the clubs. Children will also face the problem of not attaining the percentage of attendance of lessons which is a requirement in order to make them eligible to receive Holy Communion and/or Confirmation. The Church's obligation is well-founded and should not be ignored or discarded.

The Holy Name Society wishes, and sincerely hopes, that discussions between the Ministry of Education and the Church authorities start taking place as soon as possible so that a way is found whereby Catechism lessons are provided to the children in the clubs so that they, too, will be well-prepared to receive the sacraments. Discussions can take place directly with the Archbishop or with the National Catechetical Commission which has experts in this field.

The Holy Name Society looks forward to seeing the Opposition contribute towards the formulation of the basic principles of this system. It would be ideal to see everyone cooperate where the education of our children is concerned as this would greatly help to prepare them for life in every sphere: physically, psychologically, mentally and also morally.