School curriculums need to reflect strands of the different cultures brought in by migrants, according to Raymond Facciol, an Education Ministry official.

“We need to ensure that our curricula reflect a multi-ethnic and multi-language society and we have, in the meantime, started creating an outreach programme with parents of migrant children,” he told a conference on integration.

Mr Facciol, assistant director at the department of curriculum management, said that three years ago the State school population was dwindling. However, there had been a substantial increase in child migration over the last couple of years.

Between July 2013 and November 2014, 1,537 migrant pupils were registered at state primary schools. About 550 of these were provided with a six-week induction course, he said, noting that even European migrants, such as Italian children, had language challenges.

“Migrants are a potential asset and bring a cultural wealth that can be exploited to enrich the whole classroom. Just look at these drawings,” he said, showing, among others, a picture by a Spanish schoolgirl who likes music.

Some drawings, however, show the trauma of war. The hall fell silent when a drawing by a seven-year-old Syrian girl was projected on the screen behind him.

The detailed drawing showed a crying girl kneeling behind her mother who has blood gushing out of three bullet holes in her stomach. People around the mother and child also seem to be crying and, in the centre of the drawing, a grenade is spiralling towards the ground. 

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