President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca highlighted the need for critical thinking and active citizenship to counter “rising extremism and populist rhetoric” in a speech delivered on Tuesday.
“It is up to us to respond to these threats through education, knowledge, and the acquisition of wisdom, to be the critical thinkers, the effective collaborators, and the informed citizens which are so much needed in this uncertain world of ours,” Ms Coleiro Preca said at the beginning of a multi-disciplinary conference entitled ‘Breaking Barriers: Research, Practice and Collaboration’.
Describing education as “an inherently political activity, linked to issues of social justice and social solidarity”, the President said academics, researchers and students had many a time been known to challenge and transform society’s most deeply-held beliefs and rigid mentalities.
She highlighted Eurostat figures showing that only 12 per cent of the EU adult population said that they felt engaged in processes of active citizenship, able to participate meaningfully in their countries’ democratic processes.
Ms Coleiro Preca said critical thinking, fostered through an education system that breaks barriers and that develops innovative approaches and connections, was therefore essential to nurture deeper levels of understanding, participation, and solidarity.
“By thinking critically, beyond the barriers imposed by the status quo, academics, researchers, and students have the opportunity to explore ideas whilst also questioning underlying assumptions,” she said.
“Our democracies require reflective citizens who possess the skills and the abilities to think critically and to apply their knowledge in practical ways,” President Coleiro Preca added.
Stressing the importance of actively engaging with our political and social institutions to create the necessary positive change, she added: “In this way, we shall truly be breaking barriers, to nurture a spirit of social justice and solidarity, for the benefit of all our communities and societies.”
The conference is being held at G.F. Abela Junior College.