The term “learning society” has formed part of our educational discourse for decades now. We are also familiar with the related term “lifelong learning”. However, I feel we still need to ask ourselves whether we have managed to build a learning society in Malta or whether we lag behind other European countries.

Today, we all acknowledge that, given the continual changes that modern life entails and the amount of new and very relevant knowledge that is daily being created as a result of this, lifelong learning has ceased to be an option and has become a must for all citizens. Yet, if we analyse the local situation closely I am afraid we shall find that while we have made great strides ahead in several areas of lifelong learning we are still lagging behind in others.

Where we have greatly succeeded is in opening access to learning for all and widening the areas of learning available. I am sure that everybody would agree that the Directorate for Lifelong Learning, falling under the Ministry of Education, today offers a great number and a variety of courses, both during the day and in the evening, where one can learn either for credentialing purposes or simply for pleasure. Local councils have also made it possible to hold courses in all areas of Malta and Gozo.

Such formal and non-formal educational provision has brought learning to all citizens and participation has been quite satisfactory.

A lot of informal learning is also taking place in Maltese society through the technological advances in Malta over the past decades. The internet is now part and parcel of the daily life of thousands of citizens. This mine of information has revolutionised our life and many of us acquire useful information through use of the internet on a daily basis. Technological advances in schools have also meant that our children learn how to make the optimum use of information technology from an early age and this skill will serve them throughout the rest of their lives.

So, you will ask: “Where are we still lagging behind?”

First of all, despite all our successes, there is still part of Maltese society whose contact with education and learning seems to almost cease with the end of compulsory schooling. We have to admit that we still have too large a number of people who are illiterate. We still have too many semi-educated people. Can we afford this in a member state of the European Union? Malta is a country with very limited resources where optimal use of its human assets is a crucial factor in the creation of the national wealth.

I also believe that we have to work more on teaching schoolchildren the skill of “learning to learn”. Children have to learn to be autonomous learners from as early an age as possible. We have a big problem in primary schools because spoon-feeding of pupils is a traditional aspect of primary education and several parents want to retain the status quo. This is wrong and hinders progress. Compare many of our primary school pupils with those in other EU countries, say, Italy, and you will notice how much more confident, autonomous and creative are those pupils compared to ours. This is because in the other countries, schoolchildren organise their own learning at an early age and are encouraged to be as autonomous as possible, always under adult guidance, of course. In Malta, the overprotectiveness and absolute control over learning that several parents endorse as the correct approach to primary school education only serves to suffocate the initiative and creativity of many children in “learning to learn”.

There is also the question of critical education. While it is true that we have considerably increased and widened access to learning for many members of society, it is also true that teaching critical skills has been somewhat neglected. Let us be honest with ourselves. There are still thousands of people in Maltese society who never question their sources of information. How many times have I heard somebody repeat verbatim a piece of information obtained from a newspaper, the internet, television or radio without his/her stopping to reflect on whether such information is accurate? How many citizens assess information for bias, for instance? Is it not true that many people disseminate the information presented to them as fact without realising that it is nothing more than subjective, often biased, interpretation of the facts after all? Some countries offer courses for adults on “critical analysis of information”. How many such courses do we have in Malta?

To conclude, we are well on the way to becoming a “learning society” but we have not got there yet. There is still room for further improvement.