What makes the use of prefabricated classrooms necessary when new schools are being built?

Michael Sant, chairperson of Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools

Driven by its pledge in favour of the equitable provision of good quality and inclusive education, the Ministry for Education and Employment remains focused on providing a modern educational infrastructure. This is being achieved by means of school environments with better conditions and facilities, improved levels of functionality, enhanced circulation spaces and higher comfort.

Assigned to the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools (FTS), the task to upgrade the schools estate is being met by a new school building programme for the rising student population in State schools and by the refurbishment of schools, some of which were built decades ago, to give them a facelift to meet modern standards.

 In the past six years a series of schools have been built and inaugurated, namely the new St Benedict College middle school in Kirkop, the new St Nicholas College secondary school in Dingli, a new primary school in Żebbuġ, the National Sport School in Pembroke, the new Mcast campus in Gozo and the new Marsascala primary school earlier this year.

And works are proceeding at a fast pace on the new Qawra school while plans for the construction of new schools in Msida and Victoria are at an advanced stage.

At the same time the programme to renovate our ageing state educational infrastructure moves ahead according to a priority action plan designed by the Education Ministry. Financial resources to underpin these initiatives have also been assured.

Furthermore, this programme covers a range of projects for the repair, renovation and structural remodelling of existing educational facilities, including new equipment and technology in Qormi San Ġorġ, Rabat, Santa Luċija, Żejtun, Dingli, Lija, Għaxaq, Naxxar, Mellieħa and Nadur. Other projects include the new San Miguel Resource Centre in Bulebel and the School of Arts in Valletta.

With most schools active on a year-round basis, use is being made of prefabricated modular mobile classrooms. This is an effective temporary solution that allows students to remain in familiar surroundings without disruption to learning and other activities.

Modular classroom units in school grounds in Żejtun and St Paul’s Bay are equipped with electrical systems, air-conditioning, sliding double glazed aluminium windows, internet points, interactive white boards, internal ceiling neon lights and emergency lighting. Each class is equipped with a fire alarm system while each prefabricated unit is fire compliant in line with EU norms.

While some might justifiably debate the lack of brick and mortar feeling of these temporary solutions when compared to traditional classrooms, it is ridiculous to compare these facilities adopted in various European countries to cold metal box containers that transport industrial, consumer and other goods. This is a total distortion of facts. There is absolutely no comparison between the two structures.

Destructive criticism of this temporary solution is merely an attempt to derail the ongoing investment drive that will have long-lasting benefits for our youths.

Justin Schembri, Birkirkara local councillor

Schools and classrooms are not the utmost priority in education. This country must recognise the need to nurture cultural modification in the way teaching is conducted and performed. We should not put unnecessary focus on buildings but more effort into teaching and learning.

Fifty years ago, Finland was failing catastrophically in education. Yet, they have turned their schools around – and now the Finnish model is recognised internationally for its high outcomes. The Finnish educational model is also praised for its methodology mainly based on equality and high-quality teaching in schools, which have played a substantial role in this success story.

While in Malta we attempt to find reasons for the lack of motivation in our classrooms, the teaching profession in Finland is particularly highly valued. Their model is built on a solid foundation of equality. It also possesses the world’s best teachers who constantly strive to adapt their teaching according to the needs of an ever-changing society.

To remain at the cutting edge, we must also understand that the dynamics of society are constantly evolving. Educators must realise that they need not reinvent the wheel when they are looking for effective ways to teach, since there are literally hundreds of models of teaching and learning.

Various models provide theoretical or instructional frameworks and outlines. But teaching is all about… you’ve guessed it, teaching. As teachers, we must invest in creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration. These four themes are not to be assumed as units but as themes that should be overlaid across all curriculum strategic planning.

You might be thinking that I have misunderstood the question, but I did not. My firm belief is that this country has too many obstacles hindering its educational progress to be debating prefabricated classrooms and the building of new schools.

I am not saying that investing in new schools is not necessary – it was a consistent achievement for the Nationalist Party in government – especially when the majority of our schools are in a massive need of refurbishment, but this debate is not a prio­rity when our teaching and learning mentality needs serious modifications and when inclusive education in Malta leaves much to be desired. For example, the majority of State schools are not even equipped with a multi-sensory classroom for students with learning difficulties. This country needs a long-term vision for an educational system that gets the best out of every individual (and we must work hard to achieve this notwithstanding the current changes implemented). But having a government that fails to build enough schools is indicative of a government that cannot provide the very basics for education: well-equipped schools in which we can harvest a new mentality and deliver, using the best teachers possible.

You cannot hope to succeed in a long-term plan when most buildings are not prepared to grasp the change.

Patricia Azzopardi Preziosi, member of the Democratic Party

Prior to 2013, Malta had a new school being built and inaugurated annually. This programme has been stalled since 2013. Suffice to say that the creation of new schools, being much more than mere construction in brick and mortar, involves a whole gamut of studies, disciplines, resources and entities.

Only a consistent and carefully nurtured programme of successfully marrying the state’s hard-earned resources with the real and direct needs of educating our future citizens for a sustainable and forward-looking market economy will do social justice – a basic tenet of Partit Demokratiku’s philosophy and realpolitik.

Admittedly, by 2013, the school-age population in certain localities was dwindling, while it was increasing in others. And with economic growth oriented in new directions, our education system had a corresponding need for resources it has still not received.

2019 saw the introduction of pre-fabricated classrooms which can generally be seen as a management-by-crisis approach to plug urgent lacunae in classroom space. But one might also suspect ulterior motives when such contracts are handed out to political friends who provide such structures.

That we are asking these questions must be seen in the context of a wider crisis in the sector. This year, the Malta Union of Teachers said that Maths and Maltese exams would be suspended in secondary schools due to a teaching shortage. This situation, it claimed, has arisen after teachers were being given unreasonably large workloads because the government was attempting to maximise rather than increase the resources allocated. One can see a pattern emerging whereby the sector is throttled because of resource allocation issues, once again pointing to a management-by-crisis approach.

The situation with the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools shows that this is not because of a lack of available resources. FTS finds itself overstaffed as people have been recruited directly through Education Ministry channels, and operational costs have tripled to €2 million despite producing less than under previous administrations. Contracts were allegedly signed without any proper procedures having been followed. Therefore, one can see that the crisis in education in Malta is also a result of a lack of prioritisation of resources and poor or non-existent due diligence.

Prefabricated classrooms are a glaring symptom of a larger malaise, which does not arise from resources not being available but rather poorly prioritised, potentially due to an unhealthy political system.

The summary introduction of prefabricated classrooms becomes necessary when an administration fails to plan ahead accordingly, betraying a sense of a deeper crisis in the educational sector – one which is seeing a continued shortage of teaching staff and working conditions that do not attract students to the profession.

For such a growing problem, there can be no prefabricated one-size-fits-all solutions.

If you would like to put any questions to the parties in Parliament send an e-mail marked clearly Question Time to editor@timesofmalta.com.

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