I refer to Alex Perici Calascione's article Disability And Equal Opportunities (April 17) and also that by Kirill Micallef Stafrace titled What Future For Persons With Special Needs? (March 21), which both discuss the problem of the access to employment of people with a disability, especially those with a learning difficulties.

Both show deep frustration. Dr Perici Calascione stated that "it is absolutely unacceptable, five years into our membership of the European Union, that things have not moved faster and given more positive results". Dr Micallef Stafrace said that "I had hoped that there had been progress in our country's treatment of its special needs citizens over a certain age who have an intellectual or behavioural disability but apparently not. This is disgraceful".

Both candidates also agree on the economic benefits of addressing the situation. Dr Perici Calascione wrote: "If the government looked at the long-term value of keeping people in employment, then it would start making more sense. There is less of a burden to social services; people become more independent and require less care". Dr Micallef Stafrace wrote that "it is less expensive to provide training for special needs persons with intellectual disabilities rather than have them on a pension for 40 odd years".

The solution is not merely an option or a possibility.

The government policy document Skills For The Future, issued in the beginning of April, states: "Access to skills is the key for prosperity and will determine tomorrow's rich and poor - on both a country and a personal level.

"The best form of welfare is to ensure that people can adapt to change and avoid being cut off permanently from labour market opportunities.

"Support for low-skilled workers, migrants and disabled people needs to be reinforced, notably by fostering skills development. In this respect, fair access principles should be sustained in education and training.

"Student support systems in place need to be sustained with this in mind. Any new initiatives should focus on assisting primarily those who need it most".

It is clear, therefore, that the skills development for people with disabilities, among the marginalised, should have due priority in funding, resources and planning. Skills development for the disabled should not be seen as a post-secondary postscript for those who have left school without moving into tertiary education or the labour market. Precious time and effort is frittered away in non-productive academic syllabus shoe-horning. We need to restructure our systems to make them responsive to the needs of people. We need to gear the secondary education system and beyond to seamlessly mesh with the labour market and develop the skills of the individual to enable him/her to meet the future.

We owe it to these upcoming generations of citizens to mean what we say in our policies and to act on them. We certainly shouldn't need to wait for campaigners for the five seats in Brussels to bring up these issues to see some reaction from the government in Malta.