Education is high on everyone’s agenda. It is key to the unleashing of an individual’s potential, giving one the best chances for employability. Parents, youths, teachers, LSAs, heads of school all want high standards in education and an environment that fosters this.
It is therefore not surprising that education is of paramount importance for the Nationalist Party.
Starting in 1987, a PN government brought about historic changes in educational policy. Education became one of the key pillars for personal empowerment and national development.
Our standard of living improved and our aspirations for ourselves and our children increased in direct proportion to the investment we made as a country in our educational system, its structures, its services and its teachers.
Partly due to this massive investment, youth unemployment in Malta at 14.4 per cent was the fifth lowest in the EU in 2009, at the height of a world economic crisis.
The bold vision for educational development of the successive Nationalist governments helped transform Malta’s economy into a vibrant and diversified mix of hi-tech and high value-added products and services driven by Maltese expertise.
But we did not get everything right. There were notable successes but more could have done in some areas, and we could have done some things better.
Since my appointment as Shadow Minister for Education and Employment, I have been talking to parents, teachers, school administrators and other stakeholders to appreciate better people’s lived experience and perspective of the educational achievements and outcomes as well as shortcomings of successive Nationalist governments.
It is partly on the basis of this understanding, of an objective perspective of the lessons that need to be learnt from our past, that the Nationalist Party can then look to the future.
The successes in education were built on three key achievements: wider access, transformation of stakeholders from adversaries to partners, and improved standards.
Wider access: Successive Nationalist governments removed unnecessary barriers such as streaming and theJunior Lyceum and common entrance exams that made our schools the most segregated in Europe and viewed education as an obstacle race rather than a learning experience.
We ensured that all children, no matter what their needs, had the necessary resources to learn effectively. We encouraged and invested in pre-school years through childcare or kindergarten facilities, becoming a country that holds one of the highest scores for attendance in these years in Europe.
The number of students in post-secondary education increased by two-and-a-half times from 1995 to 2012. The number of girls increased in all post-secondary educational sectors and has become the majority in tertiary education.
New schools, faculties, institutes and courses opened to cater for new industry opportunities and our children’s growing aspirations. More adults continued their education than ever before: the number of participants in part-time further or higher education courses increased tenfold from 1995 to 2012.
From adversaries to partners: due to the misguided policies of previous governments, by 1987 parents, teachers, and the non-state sector had been alienated and were perceived as adversaries to government.
Just as we celebrate the successes of our schools, we need to acknowledge that we could have done some things better
Yet over 25 years these stakeholders have become key partners in educational transformation. We started by acknowledging the professionalism of teachers and school leaders. Teachers’ salaries increased but most importantly our respect for them did too.
From being seen as obstacles to national educational development, the Church and independent schools have become valued partners, each contributing in a unique way to education and to the development of our country. Together we have made access to schools fairer, and have sought to transform the National Curriculum so that all our children have a rich and relevant educational experience.
Parental involvement has also greatly increased across all sectors, with school councils set up and parents increasingly participating in their children’s learning, leading to their own upskilling.
Over the years schools have been given ever increasing autonomy. Through the colleges, they have much greater opportunities to work together to improve the quality of teaching and learning.
Improved standards: the rate of illiteracy has fallen in all age groups with every national census. The percentage of students who completed a tertiary level of education increased from 18 per cent to 22 per cent from 1995 to 2012.
The new state schools have raised the bar in how we expect schools to look and function, and are setting the national standard. ICT and e-learning are now an integral part of the resources available to teachers and students in both primary and secondary schools.
Just as we celebrate the successes of our schools, our teachers and students, we need to acknowledge that we could have done more, and we could have done some things better, to further improve educational standards.
We could have been more careful with the introduction of the reforms after the 2006 amendments to the Education Act. It is clear that teachers needed more time and support to implement the profound culture change that was, and still is, required in our schools so that learning is really differentiated and personalised.
Schools, especially secondary schools, needed more autonomy and flexibility to better address the needs and aspirations of their learners. The colleges did not always foster this.
While a lot of attention was focused on the development of the curriculum and the introduction of e-learning, not enough attention was given to ensuring that, in fact, both teaching and learning improved as a result. The results of international studies such as TIMSS, PISA and PIRLS show that we lag behind other European countries.
More could have been done to ensure effective inclusion rather than mereintegration by making better use of the wide range of resources available, and providing LSAs and support staff with better opportunities.
These are important lessons for the Nationalist Party. They do not negate the historic reforms that transformed our country. But we need to reflect on these lessons to explore new ways to achieving our foundational principles:
Ensuring that all learners succeed to the best of their ability and in line with their aspirations;
Ensuring that our biggest investment remains in our children’s as well as our own education;
Ensuring that this investment is used with equity;
Working with all stakeholders – parents, teachers, employers, the private sector, the voluntary sector, services working with children and families – to bring about the cultural change that will make all this possible.
This is why the Nationalist Party is embarking on a wide process of consultation in which we are listening attentively to the concerns, aspirations and proposals of all stakeholders.
This is why what is most important to me in fulfilling this responsibility is to listen and learn from stakeholders’ experiences while keeping in mind that students and teachers are the centerpiece of good education policies.
Therese Comodini Cachia is a Nationalist MEP and Shadow Minister for Education and Employment.