Politicians often like to project themselves as the champions of education. Tony Blair had said he had three priorities for his government: education, education, education. His predecessor Winston Churchill was probably more pragmatic when he said “Education is too important to be left to politicians”.
Our own educational attainment records are amongst the worst in the EU. The European Commission in its biannual review of the Maltese economy has often urged the government to undertake a study to discover why so many young people were leaving the Maltese educational system without any qualifications thus rendering them practically unemployable. So far this study has not been commissioned.
Those who work on the coalface of our educational system seem to know much more about the sick roots beneath educational failure. The head of the Cospicua primary school, Marion Falzon Ghio, put aside the usual deference that many people often resort to when in the presence of political leaders and spoke her mind in a very public way.
She claimed that “schools are plagued by absenteeism, students with poor hygiene and non-compliant parents”. She criticised the proposal made by the Malta Union of Teachers “that children’s allowance be withheld for parents who fail to provide children with basic necessities”.
But she made equally scathing remarks on the present system of paying children allowance without any consideration by the government of how these allowances were being used. Ms Falzon Ghio complained about “how some parents spent their income, including children’s allowance, on such things as make-up while children lack their basic needs”.
She went beyond complaining and made a very sensible suggestion. “A better way around controlling the social benefit would be to give out vouchers which could only be spent on certain necessities for the children.”
Some may argue that this would amount to an unacceptable patronising attitude on the part of the government. But the head of the Cospicua school made a valid argument against the squandering of taxpayers’ money without ensuring that this money was used to for the purpose of helping children who lived in a difficult family environment.
Ms Falzon Ghio is obviously passionate about her work and did not mince her words when she proposed a sensible way ahead for dealing with poor educational achievement. “We need to unite. It’s pointless me fighting against absenteeism if doctors are giving out certificates even when not needed.”
She was not pointing figures but focusing attention on a festering wound that is debilitating our educational system – a wound inflicted by various people who should know better. This head of school has done more than any political or educational leader to bring to the attention of those who care about the future of our younger generation the serious problems that are resulting in serious under-performance in the educational field.
Most politicians of both our main political parties shy away from discussing the future of our welfare state. Free education, student stipends, free health care, children’s allowances and other social benefits are sacred cows that few people in public life dare to challenge lest they be labelled as enemies of the weak in our society.
From time to time a breath of fresh air blows in the corridors of power. We need more people like Ms Falzon Ghio who can shake the complacency and lack of political will of public policy makers by speaking from the heart about some worrying realities that are afflicting our society.