Mistaken funding priorities in education - Abela

Opposition education spokesman Carmelo Abela complained of mistaken funding priorities in the education sector when he spoke in parliament on the budget debate on Saturday.

"The government is effectively stopping the people from moving forward and making the best use of their talents," Mr Abela said.

The Prime Minister had spoken of quality education, but how was quality being measured? Why were almost a third of secondary school students leaving school without a single SEC certificate? These people ended up without skills and then found it difficult to find a job. Was it true that a fifth of Junior Lyceum students did not sit for the SEC exams?

Both sides wished to see more students at the university, but, Mr Abela said, for a start, the foundations - kindergarten and primary schooling - needed to be given more importance.

Unfortunately the budget did not raise funding for the fight against illiteracy. Indeed, the vote for the Foundation for Educational Services, which was providing important services for students who needed particular attention, was being reduced by Lm27,000. So much for the commitment to overcome illiteracy made in the government's plan to tackle poverty and social exclusion. Up to 16.9 per cent of people aged under 34 were illiterate.

The current situation was such that the government was having to raise funding for the Employment and Training Corporation to train workers in basic skills which they should really have learnt in primary and secondary school.

Turning to vocational subjects, Mr Abela said there was need for the education system to offer effective solutions for students who needed different teaching methods. The learning by doing concept should be such as to encourage such students to also realise the importance of academic subjects.

Furthermore, pupils who failed their Junior Lyceum exam should not be written off in the public psyche and they should be given new opportunities to develop their talents. What had happened to technology and design, which should have been introduced in all secondary schools by now?

Mr Abela said absenteeism remained unacceptably high. Perhaps this could be linked to a World Health Organisation survey which said that Maltese students felt the most pressured. Were there enough personnel available to support difficult students and their parents?

Mr Abela regretted that funding for training was falling by 21 per cent.

The ministry was laying strong emphasis on planning for tomorrow, but targets then had to be achieved. Five years after the national minimum curriculum was launched, Malta had fallen behind in its implementation. The MUT had said that up to 80 per cent of its measures had not been implemented, a claim the minister had denied. But no proper evaluation was being made by the Education Ministry. What had become of the focus groups?

What had become of the measures to instil skills and attitudes as the curriculum laid down? What of the educational benchmarks, better textbooks... and so many other proposed measures. The curriculum was supposed to have made children happier, the schools more child friendly, school management more autonomous and with a syllabus that put less pressure on the students.

Yet the vote for the implementation of the curriculum was dropping by Lm50,000, the second drop in as many years.

The government repeatedly spoke of the importance of IT, yet the two votes for funding of IT in schools were declining, by Lm150,000 or 20 per cent and Lm100,000, or 33 per cent. This meant that no new investment was being made.

Was a proper evaluation being made of IT use in schools? In two years only two persons had graduated from the B.Educ course specialising in IT.

The vote for school equipment was also being reduced by Lm10,000.

What action was being taken on the basis of the school health and safety reports?

Funding for the special education programme would remain unchanged. Would the government help the Razzett tal-Hbiberija, which gave so much help to state schools?

The Labour MP said the government's reference to clusters of schools had resulted in new tensions in the sector and among teachers which was not benefiting students. The teachers appeared to be in the dark on the government's plans.

Clearly there needed to be detailed and broad consultations. On what basis were Lm200,000 being allocated for the cluster system for next year? The opposition had an open mind on the proposal, but the end result should be an improvement in the classes, and less red tape.

Mr Abela noted that the vote for capital expenditure, used for school building and maintenance, was being chopped by a substantial Lm1.1 million. And this when education was supposed to be a pillar of the budget. Had the seven year masterplan for the building and modernisation of schools by the Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools become a secret?

The recent magisterial inquiry into the operations of the foundation showed that all was not well. The state was supposed to get value for money from the foundation, yet engineers such as Emanuel Farrugia were being paid much more by the foundation than was the norm in the private sector.

Mr Abela referred briefly to the Chalmers report on the funding of post-secondary education. The Labour government seven years ago had tried to put the stipends system on a sustainable footing. The government may be starting to act only now.

The university, Mr Abela said, had serious funding problems. Funding was being increased by some Lm2 million but that would only be used to cover some of the shortfalls of the past and the problems would therefore persist and worsen. Funding for the Junior College also appeared to be inadequate.

At Mcast, what plans were there for more places to be available to students?

What did the future hold for the Malta Council for Science and Technology?

Concluding, Mr Abela said education was not a cost but an investment and this country could only progress when it had a sufficiently trained workforce.

Labour MP Justyne Caruana called on the government to give greater importance to problems facing young people.

The young, she told parliament, were getting increasingly frustrated and depressed by growing unemployment which affected both graduates and those with no skills. One could see how drug abuse was growing and more young people than in previous years were ending up in court. Prostitution by young men and women had risen as well as rapes. And the number of violent gangs was on the increase.

Dr Caruana regretted that she had been negative and said she wanted to pay tribute to the many young people who were involved in voluntary work.

There needed to be a national plan to focus on instilling a strong moral fibre and character in young people.

The Labour MP also referred to sports, calling for the creation of a Sports School, as indeed the PN had promised, a stronger sports culture and greater professionalism in the sector. What had become of promises to allocate funds to athletes such as overseas training bursaries? The Malta Sports Council, it seemed, was still finding its feet. The budget showed a 40 per cent drop in funding for sports organisations.

The national rugby team, which was doing Malta proud, needed to be given title over a rugby pitch so as to be able to take up an offer for Lm50,000 in assistance by the international rugby board.

The government also needed to help the Malta Sailing Federation and the Royal Malta Yacht Club, which organised the Middle Sea Race. In Gozo, much investment was needed in sports, such as on an athletics track.

Karl Chircop (MLP) asked how the Lm1 million allocated for the employment plan would be spent.

Unemployment, he said, was worsening with 8,170 seeking work, and workers were also seeing their conditions deteriorate. The budget proposal to reduce vacation leave reflected government contempt of the new employment law the government itself had moved. This measure showed how the government had ignored the views of all the social partners. But reducing leave, on its own, would not raise competitiveness, more so as the government itself was continuing to raise costs.

It was good that women who returned to work would get a one year tax holiday, but there were no vacancies where they could work.

The budget imposed new tax burdens such as the power and water surcharge, an increase which most affected those families with a big number of children.

The ETC still had a mismatch in the courses it organised when viewed in the context of job vacancies.

Marie-Louise Coleiro (MLP) said the mismatch between the education sector and job vacancies reflected government failure over the past 17 years.

The failure was also underlined by the growing number of people at risk of poverty, most of whom had low education standards. So did the persistent level of illiteracy.

It was disgraceful that 14 years after Malta applied to join the EU, many educational standards here were far lower than in the EU.

Ms Colerio also spoke on health and safety, saying EU figures did not paint a good picture for Malta. The Occupational Health and Safety Authority had itself complained of being under funded and under manned. Yet funding was being reduced from Lm290,000 this year to Lm245,000 for next year.