When I look back at the last 60 years since Malta became an independent country and I ask myself how much have we matured as a nation, the answer is, sadly: very little if at all.

Have we, in fact, grown up? Do we know what we want to be? Do we have a direction?

We are still making an enormous mess of things when left to our own devices at all levels of society.

Self-government needs maturity. Maturity means learning from experience and having an unwavering sense of what is right.

I believe that Malta has been let down by the political class who have not taken the lead to break away from mediocrity and parochialism.

The problem is that everyone, including the political class, is a product of our education system and, unless that is changed, we will never break away from this mess.

Where do we go from here?

I think the solution lies squarely in the way we educate our children.

Nelson Mandela once said: “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.”

We need to change the way we educate our children. We must break away from this obsession with academics which forces our children to memorise textbooks like parrots and then forget it all once they have passed their exams. Children should not sit for a single exam before the age of 12.

Children must first become fluent in social skills, creativity, art, the environment, life skills, ethics, music, and beauty before swotting textbooks.

In a recent media interview,  the children’s commissioner said there should be a balance between school life, extra-curricular activities and time with the family.

Educators are also saying that the syllabus is too academically heavy, which is resulting in children having to cope with mental health issues.

In addition to the usual challenges of growing up, our children are facing new realities such as stress, cybercrime and cyberbullying.

I believe that we must spend the first 12 years of their lives teaching them about basic values so that they will have a solid foundation to face these challenges.

I appeal to parents and our educators to incorporate the following basic values (it is not a comprehensive list, by any means, but you will get my drift) in the syllabus of children up to the age of 12:

Honesty – we must teach our children to be truthful to themselves and everyone else. This will help them to do the right thing and make the right choices when faced with life’s situations.

Integrity – we must teach our children about the importance of keeping their promises, of being consistent and not bending things to suit themselves. We must encourage them to set high personal standards and be disciplined when living up to those standards.

Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world- Nelson Mandela

Respect – we must teach our children to respect themselves, which, in turn, will teach them to respect others, especially elderly people, the opposite sex, their families and other people’s opinions.

Gratitude – saying thank you to all the people around you – is not only polite but also a very powerful way of showing respect, which is very often reciprocated. Children will soon realise that being nice to other people helps them grow as a person.

Inclusion – our children must learn that we are all together on this planet and we must not exclude anyone because they are different in any way.

They must learn to embrace diversity and appreciate the beauty of our world.

Emotional intelligence – this is important because it enables children to learn how to listen, to be patient, how to persevere, control anger in times of stress and how to be humble.

Social intelligence – children need to understand that we are one big family and they must learn to be nice; it is just as simple as that. They will then enjoy being polite, caring and not being selfish.

I am not a professional educator, therefore, I will leave it up to the experts to sort out the technical way to implement what I am suggesting. However, I believe one of the things that needs to be done is for the university to introduce a teacher training course on how to teach these basic values. I must add that I am just a parent with no agenda apart from a wish to see our children growing up to be decent people.

I believe that once the children have understood these basic values, they will be in a much better position to learn: how to recognise true friends; how to communicate; how to be creative; how to appreciate beauty; how to handle stress; how to speak in public; how to do the right thing; how to be polite; and how to be thankful. And, eventually, the more technical knowledge of: how to vote responsibly; how to manage personal finances; how to insist on good governance; how to accept that we must pay our taxes; and how to accept that we must take care of our environment.

According to an initiative in the UK under the patronage of Kate, Princess of Wales, called ‘Shaping Us’, the most important formative years of a child’s life are from birth up to five.

If this is true, then parents have a critical role to play.

The trouble is that most of today’s parents were not given the opportunity to learn about basic values at school during their formative years.

This is why the national curriculum must be changed now so that tomorrow’s parents can teach their children to be better persons.

Pythagoras said 2,500 years ago: “Educate children, so you don’t need to punish adults.”

Maybe private and Church schools can take the lead here by adjusting their own programmes and persuading the education authorities to do the same.

European Parliament president Roberta Metsola recently posted an emotional call to action. She maintains that: “A focus on critical thinking in education is an essential change we need to bring about from our present ‘parroting’ system.”

She went on to appeal to our politicians to think long-term with real planning and deve­lopment policies.

The trouble is that our poli­tical class is the product of our defunct education system where good governance, honesty and integrity are seriously lacking, if not totally non-existent, so we are in a bit of a vicious circle.

The electorate (including myself, I might add) is also the product of our education system and will, therefore, continue electing politicians for the wrong reasons.

Not only that; we idolise the very people we pay to lead our country!

Something must be done.

This is why we must change our education system now so that tomorrow’s electorate and tomorrow’s political class will consist of more honest, respectful, grateful, humble and intelligent people.

That is, in my opinion, the only way we can get out of this mess.

Denis Zammit Cutajar is a retired businessman.