‘Homework and exam mentalities need to change’ – Bartolo

Mr Bartolo insisted that there should be specific legislation drafted specifically to tackle similar cases like this. “I hope that our country doesn’t lose the opportunity to take on this issue seriously and properly,” he said.

Repeating what he said in Parliament on Wednesday during the debate on Independent MP Marlene Farrugia’s motion of censure against the Prime Minister, Mr Bartolo said that the temptation for corruption in politics is enormous and we need regulations “to protect us from ourselves”.

He likened the current education situation to a shoe factory that only makes one size of shoes. “The education system is unfortunately one-sizefits-all, whereas children are all different individuals. Average only exists in statistics, so we can’t focus on the ‘average’ student. We need to move from an average kind of educational system, to one of individualisation.”

The Minister clarified that he didn’t mean creating 60,000 different programmes, “but we need to be flexible enough to reach various students.” There are currently a number of ongoing programmes in secondary schools trying to do just this, such as the Xl Programme of informal education by the Prince’s Trust International.

The issues of Malta’s “homework culture” and “exam mentality” were also raised. The Minister said that these mentalities both need to change but conceded that, although it is relatively easy to legislate, it is very difficult to change mentality.

There needs to be a balance between expecting a lot from our children and just letting them be children. “The time we have for formal education is enough when you consider how many things they do. I believe they can do a lot after the formal education time which will be valuable for how they develop as people.”

The Minister said that work must be done on the syllabi to make them more manageable and, rather than having all students studying 14 subjects, why not have them focus on eight but with the result of doing them better in the end?

“Think of a plant, you can’t constantly calculate how much it has grown if you don’t give it some time to actually grow.” Mr Bartolo said this in light of the “exam mentality” which this country has cultivated throughout the years. “We can’t remove written tests altogether,” the Minister said, “but there are so many other methods that we are neglecting.”

On childcare facilities, Mr Bartolo said some parents simply abdicated responsibility and abused the service. “We need to understand that the child care centres are not just a place to park children. We are very aware of the formative period of a child’s life.” In fact, the centres are focusing on making children’s experience an enriching one, rather than just a place to stay.

Regarding employment, the Minister said that it isn’t true that the government is just employing a large number of people. In fact, Mr Bartolo cited statistics showing that the amount of government workers from 2013 compared to today has gone down by one per cent. The reason why employment is increasing in the private sector is because the government does not govern by austerity, like most countries.

Mr Bartolo said that what the government did is reduce the deficit and debts not by reducing spending, but by enlarging the economy. “Spending in sectors like education and health has increased. We got the money from the financial, betting, construction and tourism sectors, which are all growing.”