If education is acknowledged as being the cornerstone of a good quality of life and future prosperity, why is the public discussion on education so bland and sterile?
In the local scene, this discussion is even more depressing, often focusing on the size and weight of school bags, the availability of freshwater in schools and the problems of reliable school transport at the beginning of the scholastic year.
The reporting on graduation ceremonies is a little more interesting but hardly conducive to an intelligent discussion on the performance of our educational system.
So, I have to resort to recent international reports to update myself on the issues that should matter when we discuss our educational system. The OECD 2018 PISA report is an eye-opener for policymakers in education and economics as well as for parents and educators. The publication of this report is a distressing event for those who fret about the quality of our educational system.
I do not blame those who believe that the short-term vision of politicians in the last few decades shows lack of sufficient political will to invest enough in our young people. I am, of course, not referring to financial investment but to the more meaningful investment in planning, managing, and continuously assessing our educational system.
The 2018 PISA results confirm that our 15-year-olds still lag considerably behind in the international rankings for reading, science and mathematics skills. Scores of Maltese students in all three of these disciplines are significantly below the OECD average. Countries like Italy, France, Portugal, Belgium, Slovenia, and Denmark all score better in educational achievement than Malta.
The list of countries that precede Malta in the achievement table is much longer.
Our economic future depends on the quality of our educational system
I will not be surprised if our policymakers will react to this report with another dose of complacency by claiming that our scores are a little better than they were in 2015.
Another meaningful report is published by the UK’s Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). This report analyses the financial benefits that graduates in the UK achieve as a result of their qualifications. The gist of the findings of this report is that students should invest in career guidance before deciding on embarking on specific studies in tertiary education.
One of the conclusions of the IFS report is that no graduates in creative arts make financial gains from their degrees over their lifetime. Put simply, they would have been better off not going to university and investing their energies directly in their profession. Unfortunately, graduates in other soft courses do not do much better financially. One in five people with university education is left worse off financially than their peers who avoided higher education.
Male graduates in sought- after fields in science like engineering, ITC, economics, and medicine earn on average €150,000 over the course of their working life compared to what they would have earned if they did not go to university. For female graduates, this financial advantage is reduced to €110,000, possibly because of women taking time out to start a family.
Ben Waltmann, the co-author of the report and a research economist at IFS, argues that: “The government makes an overall loss on financing the degrees of nearly half of all graduates. Those losses are concentrated among those studying certain subjects. This reality does not mean that the government is misallocating funds, but it is important to be aware of the costs involved”.
There will, undoubtedly, be many who argue that the IFS report is not the right tool to judge the value of university education. Tertiary education provides students with unquantifiable experiences and friendships.
But is it too much to ask that expenditure on education should be based on ensuring that both students and taxpayers are getting the value they would expect for their investment?
The 1983 drama-comedy film Educating Rita won major awards not just because of the excellent plot and acting, but also because it delved in the real value of education.
This film deals with the shortcomings of institutional education, the class system in society and the nature of self-development and personal relationships.
If only we could revert back to discussing education in this context rather than engage in sterile discussion on whether children should wear tracksuits as a school uniform.
Ultimately our economic future depends on the quality of our educational system and its ability to bridge the widening income gaps of the haves and have-nots in our society.