Opposition calls for radical shake-up of Education Ministry

Opposition spokesman on education Evarist Bartolo has called for a radical shake-up of education ministry suggesting a new role for the minister who would be responsible for higher education and economic development and a Parliamentary Secretary with responsibilities for primary and secondary education.

Speaking during the debate in Parliament on the financial estimates of the ministry for education and sports, Mr Bartolo said this would lead to synergy because it made no sense for education and economic development to remain separate.

Earlier, Mr Bartolo said the Budget had become a futile exercise bordering on the absurd. He called on the House Public Accounts Committee and the Auditor General to examine and evaluate government expenditure because the Budget was just a play with numbers.

Focusing on education, he said the government was spending more on debt servicing (€430 million) than for education (€270 million). The situation was exacerbated by the fact millions of euros remained unspent.

For Mcast, the government has voted €4.5 million less than last year. How would this affect the proposed new campus, costing €120 million? Ten per cent of the funds would come from the EU. Where would the rest come from? Once again, ICT recruitment had started late.

If the government was earmarking that 85 per cent of Maltese students go on to higher education, then it had to channel secondary students early to vocational subjects.

The Junior College has a deficit of €0.5. More funds have been voted for a research trust in the University budget. Mr Bartolo augured that this would be a long-term investment.

Malta had also lagged behind in higher education and the National Commission for Higher Education was being kept in the dark.

He said that there was the need of a serious regulator to ensure seriousness and high quality in courses offered by third parties which did not lead to recognised qualifications.

There are other centres with outdated accreditation. There needed to be seriousness in the Schools for English.

The Bill regulating higher education has still not been introduced and the Budget does not shed any light. Malta needed a strategic plan in this sector where all stakeholders work together to offer best education opportunities.

Turning to the Sec and Matsec examinations, Mr Bartolo said that nothing had been done to rectify deficiencies identified four years ago.

There was a need for a revision in the way the education budget was apportioned, providing more educational resources which would make the schools more attractive and more relevant for the 21st century.

Where had Malta arrived in e-learning, when the world had entered into mobile learning? It made no sense that funds for modernisation in this field were controlled by the communications ministry and not the education ministry. He pointed out that there was not one qualified educational psychologist for the 36,000 state school students.

There should be more learning support assistants and more resources. He called on the minister to ensure that officials be more sensitive to the needs of such students when sitting for Sec and Metsec examinations.

Why were the funds to Inspire (Rażżett tal-Ħbiberija and the Eden Foundation) curtailed, forcing these entities to limit their services.

Parents were still complaining of higher educational expenditure.

Concluding, Mr Bartolo called on the creation of a sound infrastructure to sustain reforms, which should come about after wide consultations.

Winding up the debate, Education Minister Dolores Cristina said that the Education budget showed an increase of €25 million over 2009. Many projects, including the ICT faculty at the university and projects at Mcast, were still in their initial stages. She had no problems to set up joint committees with the opposition on education and culture.

Childcare services in three government schools were a success, with two other centres to open their doors in the coming weeks and another two planned for 2010.

She praised the Foundation for Education Services for operating more clubs in state schools after school hours providing assistance to children and parents. A new course was on the drawing board aimed at increasing employability prospects for parents. Top-up courses were organised for kindergarten assistants while only diploma holders would be engaged as of next year.

The Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools continued its work on new schools in Mosta and Gozo, on which €27 million had been invested since 2005. Maintenance and refurbishment works were carried out on 63 out of the 101 government schools.

During the past two years the government had invested €7.5 million on recruitment in the education sector, where 664 new professionals were responsible for the management of schools while 286 new teachers were employed. Education professionals were furthering their education through scholarships.

Minister Cristina announced that she would give details on the primary-secondary transition reform next week, adding that church and independent schools collaborated in the reform.

For the first time, the new School Leaving Certificate recognised both formal and informal learning achieved by students.

The Directorate for Quality and Standards focussed on the teaching of science in the primary and secondary sectors. Science and technology laboratories were to be renovated through EU funds. Malta was participating in a project (Timms) where the mathematics and science syllabi were to be evaluated and compared with those of other advance countries.

The government had invested in 9,000 laptops and computers in schools.

In inclusive education, the four special schools were being converted into resource centres.

Minister Cristina mentioned the learning zones and nurture groups established in the Cottonera area and other schools to help students with behavioural problems. She criticised the opposition for failing to set up a promised education commission for the Cottonera.

Less money had been voted to Inspire because the two institutions had merged and the government managed to get a better deal during negotiations. However, more children would be getting a better service.

On higher education, the Minister said that 750 academics had benefitted from the new collective agreement for the University and the Junior College. More creative and innovation research projects were undertaken in the University which was benefitting from European Regional Development Funds and from Regional Structural Funds. Mcast would have its own campus and would be offering joint degrees with foreign universities.

Mrs Cristina said that new legislation on education would emphasise quality assurance with the National Commission for Higher Education launching a wide consultative process on higher and further education.

The government was to set up a working group to offer a new programme to school leavers so that they could get better qualifications and provide them with better career and work opportunities.

Malta, together with Ireland, had been the first EU state to finalise the referencing report with local qualifications compared to the European Qualifications Framework. Under the lifelong learning programme, 226 scholarships for further higher studies were awarded this year. She denied that stipends had decreased adding that by the end of the year expenditure on stipends would amount to €21 million, one million more than last year.

Turning on to culture, Minister Cristina said that the National Orchestra would have its own premises at the Robert Sammut Hall in Floriana.

She said €22 million would be spent on Fort St Angelo to restore it to its previous glory. It was the government's aim to perform extensive restoration works on at last one museum a year.

It was true that Heritage Malta had a deficit but it had many projects to complete. The agency would enter into financial arrangements with the Finance Ministry.

She put Heritage Malta employees' minds at rest on their national insurance contributions saying that these had been fully paid for 2009, while arrears were also being settled.

Also contributing to the debate were opposition spokesmen Chris Agius and Owen Bonnici as well as Parliamentary Secretary Clyde Puli and government back-bencher Charló Bonnici .

The votes for the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport were approved by 35 votes against 34 after a division.