Education is a central theme for ongoing discussion. Our social, economic and cultural development depends upon it. Not enough resources can be allocated to it. Every euro must count so that we have the best educational facilities and teachers combining to give students the finest educational input and guidance possible.

The shaping stage will be that covering compulsory education. The enticing stage is that of tertiary education, through which students specialise to leaven society for a better tomorrow.

The physical side of teaching facilities has attracted very substantial capital investment. The University runs ample courses to ensure a steady supply of teachers, which might even be growing faster than the projected school population warrants, as family size continues to shrink.

The quality of the supply also needs to be radically reviewed, in its pedagogic regard, certainly, for academic qualifications alone do not necessarily make a good teacher, but also in academic terms, not least in a proper grasp of the Maltese and English languages.

Above all, teachers have to be an integral part of, prepared for and convinced by the changes that are being planned.

A major change has taken place, with the ditching of streaming in public schools. Another major change is in the offing, being the eventual introduction of a new national curriculum. Education Minister Dolores Cristina recalled the other day that the government has been working on it for three years. The draft was issued for discussion in May.

The minister said that for the curriculum to succeed in its mission the collaboration of all was required, including parents and teachers. One should say, in fact, especially teachers and parents.

Teachers have to be convinced that what they are required to teach is right. They must also have the updated training to deliver it, particularly in what is now a more inclusive system of education.

Parents too have to believe that their children are being taught the right things, in the right way. Many are not so convinced, for instance, about the way colloquially-used English words are being absorbed phonetically into the Maltese language. This needs looking into afresh.

Personally, I do not subscribe to the view that our language will “grow” through phonetic take-up of foreign words, Italian as well as English, particularly when we already have very good Maltese equivalents.

Language is also at the heart of an issue that has still to be decided. It relates to the language of instruction: Should it be Maltese or English? Mrs Cristina said, in fine understatement, that this will be a sensitive debate. “We must decide what language to use during lessons without reducing Maltese to a language only used during Maltese lessons,” she said, adding that “no country that respects itself does that.”

A country that respects itself will ensure that its language is taught and understood well so that its citizens can write and speak it properly. That is not happening in Malta.

Maltese is fast becoming a horrible hybrid, not least – perhaps especially – among many educated people and families of what they reckon to be good standing. Their example is percolating to those who believe they are aping their betters.

Using Maltese as the language of instruction for subjects that can best be thought in an international language will not make sense. It does not even satisfy national pride, which has to be fed a wholesome diet not arrangements that defeat practical purposes.

Maltese should be well thought, building early on words and expressions that make sense to the young, expanding their knowledge of not so common words and expressions as they progress through their school years.

The young should be thought to write Maltese properly, doing away with the prejudice built up by adults who do not bother to become familiar with the correct use of the “għ” (l-għajn) and the “h” (l-akka). They should be encouraged to appreciate the extensive body of good Maltese literature, built over the years since Maltese won the battle against the stupid snobs who refused to recognise it as a proper language, and now being added to by fine new writers.

They should receive good examples of proper Maltese when they hear others speaking it, especially on the sound and vision media, where the butchering of Maltese is an hourly occurrence.

That is the way to build and maintain national pride in our language against those who short-sightedly say that potential users of Maltese, even when one includes the Maltese diaspora, is relatively minuscule. That is not to say that those who believe Maltese should be the language of instruction do not also believe in all of that.

What I believe they need to rethink, in practical terms, is the fact that a whole range of subjects relate to our people’s role in the global environment.

It is possible to achieve both targets if they are kept in clear objective view. If educators and policy makers make what I, for one, term to be a strategic mistake now, the price could be heavy indeed.

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