The country’s school system caters for the middle classes, pushing those on the fringes of society into exclusion, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said yesterday.
Speaking during the unveiling of the first-ever census of unemployed and inactive youths, Mr Bartolo said they were being let down by the system. “These youths aren’t dropouts but ‘push outs’. They have been pushed out of the education system, which simply doesn’t cater to them anymore,” he said.
The census, taken of some 7,000 youths who are out of work and no longer in education or training, found that around half felt they would never find a job.
Mr Bartolo said he had met many of the idle youths personally and said that although many had street smarts which surpassed his own, they had low self-esteem and had “lost the will to live a successful life”.
The problem, Mr Bartolo said, was complex, and therefore the solution could not be simple.
“We need to rethink the education system to engage these youths and not lose them at such an early stage. We can’t expect a one-size-fits-all solution, this is too big a problem for that,” he said.
Employment and Training Corporation chairman Clyde Caruana said that some 1,100 youths had not been included in the census despite repeated attempts to contact them.
‘We need to rethink education system’
This had raised concerns and speculation that many of the youths were engaged in the black market, he said.
“When you don’t manage to locate these youths after five separate attempts between 9am and 3pm spread over five weeks, it speaks volumes about the situation. Where were these youths if not at home?” Dr Caruana asked.
We need to find ways to capture youths’ interest before it is too late
He said many of the youths required psychological assistance before being put into training and employment programmes. Several came from troubled social backgrounds, which made em-ploying them more than just a matter of training.
“Many of these youths deem themselves to be failures. It takes time to change that,” he said.
The youths who participated in the census were all eligible for the youth guarantee scheme – a training and employment programme targeting idle youths.
Dr Caruana said the programme would be revamped through a partnership with the private sector. This would allow for better resources, employment possibilities and monitoring.
Mr Bartolo said the government was in favor of improving the programme.
“We need to find ways to capture youths’ interest before it is too late. As for those already out of the system, we need short modular courses which enable them to move on in their lives,” he said.