The level of English in Malta has deteriorated to such an extent that the country is in danger of losing its bilingual status, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo fears.

“I am very worried. We need to become a bilingual society again. We are losing heavily in English and becoming a monolingual country,” the minister said.

The Constitution decrees that Maltese is the national language of the country while Maltese and English are classed as the official languages.

Mr Bartolo cannot pinpoint how and when English proficiency deteriorated, but he is concerned that the country will lose its competitive economic edge if action is not taken to halt the slide.

He recalled a conversation with Pasquale Pistorio, the Italian former president of STMicroelectronics, which has a plant in Malta employing some 1,500 people.

“I asked him why he chose Malta. His reply was simple: because we speak English and because we offer very good technical education.”

While in Opposition, Mr Bartolo had floated the idea of making English the sole language of instruction in schools, but he no longer advocates this.

“This would impoverish the country. In Opposition I was perhaps overzealous in saying let us not lose English in our schools,” he said.

I am very worried. We need to become a bilingual society again

“The language of instruction cannot be decreed from the top because each school has its own social realities.”

Central to his strategy for improving competence in English is investment in the continuous professional development of teachers.

“We want teachers to feel competent in English themselves. Once we do that, we will reverse the trend. Investing in teachers is key.”

Some specialised English as a Foreign Language (EFL) schools in Malta have offered to help train teachers in the methodology of teaching English as a second language, the minister said.

He disagreed with the notion that raising standards in English would be to the detriment of Maltese.

“We need to improve both. The University faculties of Maltese and English agree with me on this and have offered to help. Let’s have Maltese, but let’s have English as well,” Mr Bartolo said.

“We know what happens in parts of Asia. At the age of five, they start learning in English. In Germany, Italy, Holland and even France, you have some universities offering courses in English. If we lost that competitive edge, it will be another minus. We are already small. Why should we lose one of our favourable factors?”

The minister envisages the free childcare centres for all children aged 0-3 announced in the budget will be vital in developing the language and cognitive skills of the generations to come.

“At kindergarten level, kids are so open to learning and absorbing information. Evidence suggests the cognitive development of kids is improved enormously by the number of languages they learn. Concerns about confusing the kids by giving them more than one language at a time are misguided,” Mr Barolo said.

“Exposure to languages will be a facet of the childcare centres. We are lucky we have so many nationalities living here. Kids learn so much from each other. It is the adults who mess things up.”

The government has made much of its pledge to “strengthen stipends” – the monthly allowance paid to students in higher education. The budget revealed one way it plans to do this is give stipends to students who are forced to repeat a year. Is the government rewarding failure by doing this?

“No, we are rewarding effort. Stipends will only be paid to those who have attended classes, submitted assignments, done their work, but for some reason didn’t get the grades,” Mr Bartolo said.

“Stipends are not enough on their own. We need to understand why students are dropping out. The programmes they are studying have to be relevant and interesting enough for them to stay on. That is why we are also reforming the foundation and level 1, 2 and 3 at Mcast.”

In 2012, the proportion of young people in Malta with a higher education degree was 22.4 per cent, which was one of the lowest rates in the EU. Given this low rate, is there any evidence that stipends are effective in encouraging students to go into higher education?

“There are a percentage of students who would not go to university without that financial support; there is no doubt about that. Even with stipends, it’s quite a struggle for some students, depending on the income of their parents.”

So shouldn’t stipends be paid only to those in need?

“There is national consensus on universal access to social benefits. If you are using the principle of universal access to social benefits for those who are being cared for at home by parents, that principle still makes sense for those over 18.”

It is estimated that the annual cost of stipends could exceed €30 million by 2020. Does the minister think this is sustainable, or would this money be utilised better by improving the standard of education rather than access to education?

“Access is very important. You cannot solve the quality of education through stipends. We should make sure we have enough economic growth for government revenue to increase. Then we will have enough money for stipends, pensions, education and social benefits,” Mr Bartolo said.

The minister explained that the government is trying to make a financial framework agreement with the University to make it sustainable.

“We need to ensure the University has a revenue stream to help it develop its infrastructure, improve the quality of teaching and ensure funds for research,” he said.

While undergraduate courses at the university are offered free of charge to Maltese and EU students, tuition fees are charged for post-graduate courses and Mr Bartolo suggested one way the institution could generate more funds is by offering more post-graduate courses in areas where there is global demand.

He was non-committal when asked if he would consider introducing tuition fees coupled with a grant to Maltese students, as Rector Juanito Camilleri had suggested. The minister would only say that the European Commission would be watching very closely to ensure any such move did not discriminate against EU students. “They are very sensitive about this,” he said.

Concerns about confusing the kids by giving them more than one language at a time are misguided

The doctor of medicine and surgery course is bearing the brunt of demand from non-fee-paying EU students, with 76 out this year’s 199 first-year students hailing from other EU countries.

Despite concerns that it is difficult to find clinical placements for so many students, Mr Bartolo said the University had assured him that the numbers were manageable.

“I’m told it’s not a problem. There are no plans to introduce a numerus clausus. No Maltese students have been turned away if they had the necessary qualifications,” he said.

The minister would like more Maltese students to broaden their horizons by taking the opportunity to study abroad for a period on EU exchange programmes. Living away from home and having part-time jobs while studying would help them to become more independent, he said.

“The biggest problem in this sense in Malta is geographic. Even if they leave home, they are always close to home. I notice that Gozitans are more resilient and develop their life skills earlier than Maltese students. They have to make sacrifices and move away from home,” he said.

“It is important that young people start becoming aware that the rest of the world does not owe them a living.”