The visit by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Opposition leader Simon Busuttil to Mcast provoked a debate on the education sector, which is healthy, even if a lot of what was written is nothing but misinformation.
Did anyone question Muscat about Mcast? Why and when was it built? Why did Labour in government decide to close it down? Why was it only returned to its original role by a Nationalist administration following the 1987 general election?
The Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology tells a story of Malta’s development. It was built in the early 1960s by a Nationalist government, led by George Borg Olivier, to produce trained and qualified men and women who were essential for Malta’s industrial base as one of the pillars of the country’s diversification from an economy that depended on the British military expenditure to one based on industry and tourism.
Under the Labour administration of 1971/87, Mcast lost its vocation and became an educational institution that had nothing to do with arts, science and technology. Mcast was again revived by a Nationalist administration, which gave it its original status.
The Mcast campus emigrated to Corradino, where a multi million euro project, initiated by the Nationalist administration, is underway. The premises that housed Mcast in Msida are today used by the Junior College.
Mcast is a key factor in our economic development. It caters for trades that are needed by the various economic sectors. In a sense, it works closely with industry in the training of skills at all levels. One such example is the training of engineers when Lufthansa Technik decided to open a base in Malta and they wanted a good number of engineers urgently.
Much is being said about the University of Malta. This is also a story that has to do with our country’s educational and economic progress. The foundation stone of the new University of Malta at Tal-Qroqq was laid by the UK Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, Duncan Sandys, and blessed by Mgr Igino Cardinale, the Holy See’s representative during the Independence celebrations in 1964. It was not long after that the new university began to take in students.
Much is being said about who introduced free university study in Malta. In the 1971 Budget speech delivered by the then minister of finance, Customs and port, Giovanni Felice, it was stated that “as a first step in the fulfilment of this promise [the introduction of free university education] provision is being made in the 1971/72 estimates for the exemption of all students from the payment of university fees”. The measure was introduced forthwith.
It is therefore amply clear who exempted students from paying university fees, in other words who introduced free university education in Malta.
I recall both Guido de Marco and Ugo Mifsud Bonnici stating that this measure was introduced on their suggestion and insistence.
Under the Labour administration, the University of Malta lost its autonomy. University courses, which are usually the backbone of the institution, were stopped. The godparent system, and having to study for six months and work for six months, was introduced.
University students were attacked by Labour thugs on the campus. At the end of the Labour legislature, only about 800 students were at the university.
Education is the mother of all progress
The tide in favour of real free education for all was turned following the 1987 election. The university buildings were expanded to take more students. A stipends system was introduced, giving students financial help to cope with their studies. At the end of 2012, the number of students attending the university was 1- times what it had been in 1987, receiving millions of euros in stipends. Students in higher education institutions were getting €23 million a year in stipends.
There is much more to say about the education sector in Malta. In October 1970, a Nationalist government introduced secondary education for all. With the expansion of the tourism sector, in the 1960s a catering school was opened in Msida, only to be closed by Labour.
A Tourism Studies Institute was established in 1987 by the Nationalist administration. The ITS produced thousands of youths for our catering industry. Thousands of them were sent abroad to further their studies and training in hotels and catering establishments.
I will not go into the school building spree of the 1960s, when all types of educational institutions were built: the university, Mcast, secondary/technical schools, schools for those with special needs...
But I would be doing a bad service to the readers if I do not mention the fact that training colleges for teachers, which were the powerhouse that provided trained teachers for our schools, were closed down by the Mintoff administration. St Michael’s Training College in Ta’ Giorni was sold to the Libyans. Mater Admirabilis College did not have the same fate because it was owned by the religious community of the Sacred Heart.
To add insult to injury, instead of building new schools, the Mintoff government turned Nissen huts and barracks in Kalafrana, Verdala and Pembroke into makeshift unhygienic and unsuitable schools.
I feel that the best way to measure the input in education is consider the expenditure on the sector as a percentage of the national product. This stood at 5.6 per cent in 1964 and rose to 6.7 per cent in 1970. Then, under Labour, it started going down until it reached 3.1 per cent in 1980, dropping further until 1987.
The trend was reversed again during the Eddie Fenech Adami/Lawrence Gonzi legislatures, which gave education its true and vital importance, over-hauling the whole system, giving millions of euros to Church schools, building a new educational college every year and introducing modern concepts in our educational system.
In an article penned by J.P. Vassallo in 1964, the director of education states that “education is the bloodstream of a nation. It is the essential fluid which circulates through the body politic and maintains the vital organs active, functional and healthy.” Wise words coming from a very wise man.
Education is the mother of all progress: economic, social and cultural. It helps young people make the fullest use of their talents. Every cent spent on education is never money down the drain as some people argue.
It is money well invested.
Joe Zahra is a former newspaper editor.