A website offering over 1,000 lessons from kindergarten to secondary level was unveiled by the Education Ministry on Tuesday.
Lessons designed to complement online learning in progress, will be offered in every subject in line with the syllabus, Director of Learning and Assessment Programmes Tano Bugeja said.
In addition, the resources on the newly-set up website - teleskola.mt - will be accessible to everyone and will feature different activities. Step-by-step instructions on how to use the website are also available, he continued.
Education Minister Owen Bonnici said parents and educators had been requesting supplementary lessons for some time. This initiative is the first of its kind in Malta, according to Bonnici.
“This is an innovative step, a historical step you could say, in the direction of our education system.
“This portal is the first depository of education which is an open source that can continuously be enriched," he said.
A few weeks ago the government had also launched several free online courses for educators and parents through the Institute For Education website.
Skola Sajf
Asked by Times of Malta about Skola Sajf, the summer school programme run by the government, Bonnici said this was still scheduled to go ahead. However, as he had mentioned before, further developments related to the COVID-19 outbreak could result in a change of plans down the line.
The minister would not say what measures would be taken to prevent the spread of the virus during summer school, assuring that closer to the date he would be making announcements in this regard. The health of the children was of the utmost importance, he said.
Future of online learning
On online learning, Bonnici explained that one of the good things to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic was the foray into online education and in the next few weeks he would be holding giving more details on future developments in this sector.
“We need to preserve the good that came out of this experience and continue building on it. We pledge to continue developments in this field, well after the this dark cloud has passed over.”