The Covid-19 and education: A Labour government rises to the occasion and delivers

The Covid-19 pandemic impacted all sectors of any country, not least its economy, health services and education

The worldwide crises, which the pandemic generated, did not spare our country. However, what singles out Malta from the rest is the proactive manner with which the Labour government managed the crises in all the country’s vital sectors. The results are there for all to see – a country hitting the ground running in spite of the pandemic.

A sector that was particularly impacted – the short- and longterm effects of which still have to be quantified – is the education sector, a sector responsible for the formation of successive generations and our country’s future. The onset of the pandemic during the first half of 2020 saw the closure of all schools for the rest of that scholastic year. This meant that students across their compulsory years missed out on their entitlement to face-to-face lessons and first-hand educational experiences. Although there were no established protocols for managing the crisis, the Labour government immediately set in motion several initiatives meant to mitigate the inevitable negative impact of the disruption of the education of our children.

Immediately, government made available an extra €30m to fund numerous measures. In the beginning, priority was to ensure that students’ learning continues during school closure. This entailed the use of digitised technology in the form of online platforms where students could follow online, both live and recorded lessons. At a second stage, the main objective was to make all schools Covid-secure so that they can welcome back students from the beginning of the new scholastic year in October 2020, after the unprecedented seven-month shutdown.

Most of the money was invested in recruiting extra staff to supervise social distancing rules and other health protocols, cleaning supplies for the new stringent hygiene measures and subsidising school transport to be Covid-safe and secure. Additional assistance was also made available to students who needed counselling. Government, however, did not stop here. As many students were considered vulnerable or had vulnerable family members residing in the same household, a virtual school was set up to provide them with learning coaches to support their learning. All these measures ensured that while schools in other countries were shutting down during scholastic year 2020-2021, our schools remained open and fundamentally safe to children, educators and other staff.

As a result of the new reality that students had to face, “virtual” absenteeism (that is, students who made little use of the available online lessons) presented itself as an additional challenge. To address this, and by way of ensuring that all students catch up on their learning, the Ministry for Education has offered a learning recovery programme during the summer months to help these students by attending catch-up classes.

All this is testimony of how much a Labour government has the education of our children at heart. No expenses are spared to ensure that all children have access to a quality education which they so much deserve. A Labour government does not pay lip service; it pulls up its socks, does whatever needs to be done and delivers. The Labour government delivered in education during the pandemic because Labour cares.