Politics should be introduced as a subject for students in post-secondary schools, according to a university academic.
It is pointless granting 16-year-olds the right to vote if the education system intends to continue shunning politics in the classroom out of fear of labels or controversy, according to Dr Mario Thomas Vassallo, head of the public policy department at the University of Malta.
The academic is pushing to introduce the subject at Junior College and all other sixth form institutions.
Just like any other subject, politics would teach students political science and philosophy, how to draft policies and laws, critical thinking, decision-making, negotiation techniques, how to campaign, debate, lobby for particular interests and win an election. This will be in the context of the nooks and crannies of Maltese political parties and using real-life examples from recent history and contemporary local politics and politicians.
Speaking to Times of Malta, Vassallo blamed the decreasing voter turnout and young people’s reluctance to engage in politics and their desire to leave the country on the lack of political education in schools.
Whereas in the 1960s people left for Australia and the US with teary eyes, many young people nowadays leave the country with pride – happy that they do not need to live in Malta anymore, Vassallo noted.
People are not frustrated with politics, but rather, with politicians’ unbridled obsession with power- Mario Thomas Vassallo
“We stopped teaching them love for their country and service towards their fellow citizens,” he said.
“Consequently, many of them grew up unable to understand what is going on in local politics, only to increasingly grow disenchanted by partisan political tactics.
“They live in an individualistic society and many don’t even consider a life in public service because they would rather invest their qualifications and energy into finding jobs that make a good living, without bothering too much about people outside of their circles.”
Vassallo said it is still incredibly taboo for teachers and lecturers to mention politicians’ names in the classroom, much less discuss sensitive events in recent political history.
Teachers horrified of creating controversy
Teachers are horrified of creating controversy or being labelled as pro or anti-government, and would rather steer clear of the issues completely, he said. This is to the peril of entire generations of students who grow up disinterested in voting or who simply vote like their families.
Post-secondary schools do cover the basics of democracy during Systems of Knowledge, he said.
“But they mostly feel comfortable focusing on Greek, dead philosophers like Aristotle and Plato, all of whom are essential, but too far away from the realities of modern politics.”
Through their public policy department at the University of Malta, Vassallo and his colleagues managed to strike a deal that will see Systems of Knowledge lecturers receive additional training to help them incorporate contemporary politics into the classroom. But Vassallo believes this is not enough, and what is really needed is a full-fledged school subject about the science, art and philosophy of politics.
Vassallo believes many people find it hard to distinguish partisan politics from public policy, not least because in the Maltese language, unlike English, they are one and the same word – politics.
This, he explains, causes people to hate politics, because it tricks them into believing that even genuine policy-making is dirty.
'When people curse politics, they are really cursing power'
“When people curse politics, they are really cursing power, not politics,” Vassallo said.
“Politics is natural, automatic and essential to human life and people feel an innate urge to structure their societies politically.
“Nothing, in human societies, could have ever been achieved had it not been for some political structure. Take megalithic temples – someone had to decide where to build them, where to cut the stones from, and how to transport the boulders. Someone had to be tasked with designing the temple and many workers joined in the social contract that would allow them to cooperate together to build one giant structure. All of it is politics and we can’t and don’t want to live without it.”
Vassallo said people are not frustrated with politics, but rather, with politicians’ unbridled obsession with power.
The problem is that for any genuine politician to do good to their people, they must rise to power, sometimes inevitably through impure tactics, he said. And people hate politics when policy-making and politicians’ drive to rise to power or retain it, become too intertwined.
This is causing young people to become increasingly disinterested in politics and inclined to leave the country, Vassallo said.
Focusing educational efforts on stem subjects yields highly qualified professionals but risks creating mechanical human beings, prone to fall to selfish and profit-driven urges. The arts, on the other hand, sustain virtue, which is desperately needed in every aspect of our society, he said.
“It is not enough for our institutions to function; they also need to be run by virtuous people,” he said.