The damage caused in the education sector in the last two scholastic years will only be known in a few years’ time. It is time to start taking remedial action as hardly anything matters more for today’s young people than their educational achievement.
Public debate on educational issues is rare. When it does happen it is usually about non-issues, like whether uniforms should be substituted by tracksuits or what should be the ideal weight of a school bag.
The education portfolio is hardly the kind of assignment that a budding politician aspires for to start climbing the greasy pole of a political career. Results of good management and strategy in education take a decade to be seen. By then, a new minister may want to take all the merit – not the kind of prospect that amuses look-at-me politicians.
The most recent Eurobarometer public opinion survey gives some sobering indication of why education is often not caught on the radar that captures the pressing priorities of most people.
When Europeans selected to take part in a survey were asked to indicate just two critical issues facing their country at the moment, only 13 per cent included education as one of the issues.
Very revealing, only four per cent of Maltese interviewees think education is one of the two top issues.
Fortunately, there are rays of hope that education will not always be the Cinderella of national priorities at a time when we all must be thinking about building a new beginning for our country.
Italy is not often associated with sound strategic planning in public services. However, the decision of the Draghi government to prioritise investment in education in the post-pandemic era is a shining example that needs to be followed by most other countries. The Italian education minister Patrizio Bianchi said: “We will use the summer period to build a new beginning.”
Let us keep our schools open in summer and have a robust plan of meaningful activities to help children recover from lost opportunities in the last two years
Italy’s ‘Summer Plan’ will involve an expenditure of €500 million to provide free courses in schools for students aged three to 18. These courses will start in June and end in September. Both teachers and students will participate voluntarily. Special attention will be given to schools in the economically and socially depressed south of the country. Hopefully, unions will not sabotage this initiative.
The emphasis of these courses will not be on academic subjects. The objective will be to allow children to catch up with their education and social interaction. Lessons will be focused on sport, photography and the arts.
Education minister Bianchi said: “We will bring the school back to the centre of the community.”
The president of the national head teachers’ association, Antonello Giannelli, said the programme would particularly benefit families who are unable to send their children to summer camps during the holidays.
Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has also sounded the alarm bell on the injustices that exist in his country’s educational system and urged the present political elite to take action.
In one of the UK tabloids, he wrote: “Today Britain stands tall for having developed and then injected vaccines into the arms of millions. But we are still far behind in the more basic task of getting computers into the hands of children who need them most.”
Brown shared the concern of a minority of societal leaders when he said that “If we do not act now, we will fail a generation. We need a national plan to get disadvantaged children the devices and catch-up tuition they need.” He promotes the concept of ‘social tariffs’ for internet services for families that cannot afford the standard fees charged by internet service providers.
Non-profit organisations like the Good Things Foundation that addresses data poverty and the Sutton Trust that promotes social mobility are calling on the government to invest more in education to bridge the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots in our society.
Children everywhere are facing the mammoth task of catching up on months of lost learning.
For some, the challenge will be even more difficult because of social or economic deprivation.
Now is the time to act. Let us keep our schools open in summer and have a robust plan of meaningful activities to help children recover from lost opportunities in the last two years. This will need investing in programmes that will include compensation for teachers for giving up some of their holidays.
Building a summer bridge will help our youngsters recover from COVID-induced mental stress to start the new scholastic year with a better personal disposition.