Lessons learned from the pandemic must not be allowed to go to waste, ADPD said on Saturday, pointing to the widening inequalities brought about by the circumstances of the last year.
Addressing a press conference, the party leadership said the pandemic had opened up potential opportunities for regeneration but that for this to be possible, a process of ongoing critical reflection and consultation was needed.
Chairperson Carmel Cacopardo highlighted the role of education as a vehicle for social justice.
Research in education, he said, pointed to the fact that students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds were still finding it difficult to improve their situations despite an educational system meant to lift them up.
Cacopardo insisted on the need for structures that offer help to students in an immediate and sustained way. He insisted on the need for schools to have the space to come up with solutions themselves without undue interference and rigid frameworks dictated centrally.
ADPD criticised a number of consultation documents published before the end of the scholastic year, calling instead for educational communities in schools to come up with their own agendas and propose solutions tailor-made to their specific circumstances.
"In this context, it is of concern that the Board that had to oversee the implementation of the National Curriculum Framework has not met in ages," the party said.
"ADPD feels that this board needs to be regenerated and its remit widened to include the effects of the pandemic on the curriculum framework, one of which would be the effects of the pandemic on the arts, which are an integral part of our children’s development."
Deputy leader Mario Mallia and deputy secretary general Sandra Gauci praised initiatives to address the achievement gap for students who were impacted the most during the pandemic.
"It would however be a mistake to focus exclusively on academics without addressing psychosocial issues and the considerable effects on mental health that the pandemic is having on our children. The country needs to invest considerably more in mental wellbeing which suffered considerably during the pandemic," they said.
Gauci and Mallia also spoke of the need for a post-pandemic strategy to focus on early childhood education as a fundamental component of any educational provision, including "aggressively" addressing the lack of trained personnel in the sector, along with improving conditions of work.