Education Minister Evarist Bartolo has proposed the setting up of a national committee, including education authorities, the MUT and the opposition to discuss problems of discipline, behaviour in schools and truancy.

Speaking in parliament, Mr Bartolo said he was concerned about the findings of an MUT survey that teachers felt isolated and they were not finding the necessary support from the educational authorities.

It was worrying that in some schools, teachers could not work because of the behaviour of 12-year-olds. These were problems he wanted to tackle. Perhaps a national committee should be set up, also involving the MUT and the opposition, to discuss these problems and others such as discipline and truancy.

In his address Mr Bartolo said job creation was a challenge but the government was doing well and was encouraging more people to go out to work. It was especially satisfying that 93 per cent  of graduates found work quickly, as did 91 per cent of those who ended post secondary education. These were among the best figures in the EU.

The biggest challenge was to provide enough skilled workers to fill the jobs that were being created.

The government, he said, was determined to achieve progress in the integration of people with disabilities in society and in the labour sector.

Meanwhile the biggest problem, indeed a tragedy, was that 7,000 people aged under 24 left school without skills and were not seeking work. Some people slept in four different places in a week. The government was introducing measures to make these people follow the Alternative Learning programme or other training courses. It wanted  to rekindle hope in these people. 500 young people had been reached so far. It was not enough, but he was proud by what had been achieved.

His opinion, Mr Bartolo said that even obligatory school age up to 16 was too low and did not make sense in today’s competitive world.

Buy while it would be easy to legislate to raise obligatory school age to 17 or 18, the most important thing was to ensure that Malta’s young people actually wanted to continue to study.

At present, 14% of fifth formers did not continue to study after secondary school. This was far too high. All students should see the need to continue to study.

Referring to criticism on the raise in exam fees, Mr Bartolo said the increased revenue of some €500,000 would go to the University, to enable the Metsac Board to work efficiently.  And it was worth pointing out that costs for vocational subjects had been reduced.

Mr Bartolo said he very pleased with the results achieved after the government  organised private lessons for those who failed ‘O’ levels in June. As a result, many more candidates were successful in the English, Maths, Maltese and Physics resits.

This was one of the measures needed to ensure that the University population remained stable despite the anticipated drop from a falling birthrate.

When he spoke on Gozo, Mr Bartolo said efforts were being made to forge a closer link between job needs and education and as from next year, hospitality would feature as a subject in schools.