Differing views on state of education policies

The government and the Opposition yesterday in Parliament agreed that education is the foundation of a healthy society but held different views on the state of the sector.

Speaking during the debate on the education budget, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo and Opposition spokesman George Pullicino agreed that educators change the life of people and society.

Mr Bartolo insisted that the goal of the education services was the development of active, critical citizens who gave their contribution to a democratic and inclusive society as well as to the country’s economy.

Two key challenges, he said, were halting the trend whereby males fell behind females in educational achievement and the transfer of more power and autonomy to schools. The authorities should increasingly move away from the command and control functions towards a support and assistance approach to the operators on the ground.

Mr Pullicino criticised the ministry for its “lack of vision and co-ordination”, which were required to achieve the values it believed in.

Heads of schools and directors were being subjected to conflicting directions, giving rise to disgruntlement, he said.

While the Opposition was in favour of the proposed course to replace the current degree courses for teachers, Mr Pullicino said this needed official recognition at law to ensure that new graduands were not left out of the system. He proposed that extra-curricular work by teachers should be considered as part of the teaching load so that they could expand their own and the students’ horizons.

David Agius (PN) said it was the Opposition’s intention to weed out partisan politics in the sphere of youths and sport, an aim which was finding collaboration from the government benches. The Opposition supported the proposed youth policy and was suggesting a yearly progress report be debated in Parliament.

Parliamentary Secretary Chris Agius and Luciano Busutil (PL) spoke on recent developments leading to the setting up of Sport Malta, replacing the Malta Council for Sport.

Mr Agius announced the soft opening of Esplora at Bighi by the Malta Council for Science and Technology next December and other science popularisation initiatives.

A discussion on certain indicators emerging from labour market statistics was proposed by Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici (PN), who said there was scope for significant improvement in the employment figures within the emerging economic sectors.