Opposition spokesman on education Evarist Bartolo called on Education Minister Dolores Cristina to explain why students attending the second semester of the academic year at the Institute for Tourism Studies (ITS) did not have lecturers in 25 different subjects.
Speaking during the debate in second reading the Education (Amendment) Bill, Mr Bartolo declared that the opposition would be voting against this money bill as parliamentary tradition dictated. He said he was branded an extremist for this declaration even if the PN, when in opposition, always voted against money bills.
Mr Bartolo accused the Prime Minister of using extremist language to scare voters. Dr Gonzi had acted with extremism when he refused to acknowledge the electorate’s mandate on divorce and voted against the Bill, which ultimately was approved by the House.
The Bill attributes additional functions to the National Commission on Higher Education in order for it to be able to undertake functions relating to qualifications, recognition, licensing, accreditation and quality assurance of further and higher education. It would streamline the various regulatory and policy functions within further and higher education into one single entity and enable the adoption of subsidiary legislation in related areas in order to regulate the sector.
Mr Bartolo said that it was important to give accreditation to courses offered by higher and further institutes of education but it was as important to ensure the standards in the education process. It was essential to provide the necessary human and material resources and to train teachers.
The opposition agreed that higher and further institutes of education be licensed to operate. There were private institutes which were issuing certification for courses which were not recognised. There were also instances where Ministers inaugurated these same institutes. Mr Bartolo criticised the system adopted at ITS where students who had obtained advanced certification in certain subjects were studying these subjects in the same class with students who did not even have the SEC certificate.
He also censured Mcast for the system adopted where students failed their assignment but were given certification on the basis of being successful in interviews held. It was important to give accreditation to courses but, this alone did not necessarily ensure that standards would be reached.
Morale of directors and deputy directors at Mcast was at an all-time low because of the dictatorial attitude adopted. Leadership at the institution had to be democratic.
Mr Bartolo also called on the National Commission for Higher Education (NCHE) to engage in statistical research. It was important to monitor students during their course of study to get the full picture of the results achieved, the number of dropouts and repeaters during the course.
He praised Jacques Sciberras who headed the NCHE for a number of years for motivating employees and had plans for the collection of statistics. He also showed his disappointment that Mr Sciberras was removed because he was considered as an extremist by the current minister for the simple reason that he enjoyed the trust of the former minister of education. It was no wonder that the government also considered the opposition as extremist.
He still had doubts whether the €40 million in budget cuts would not affect the education sector.
Referring to stipends, Mr Bartolo said that the government’s electoral strategy would include lying about system to scare voters and assured that a futurePL government would not remove or reduce stipends.
He was not surprised by such a strategy coming from a party in government which before the last general election had given guarantees to dockyard, Air Malta and Go employees but did not keep its promises soon after as events had shown.