Education: the PN workhorse

>> What perhaps is needed now is more co-operation between the university and MCAST so that students can freely flow between one institution and the other without interruption of studies or duplication of work<<

Ever since its inception, the PN, unlike other parties in government, has always made education one of its most important columns when in government. Today we have more than 80 per cent of secondary school leavers continue a post-secondary and tertiary education resulting in a much more educated, flexible and employable workforce. In itself it is the most important measure against human poverty and the most important tool for people empowerment. All must realise that the more we are educated, the less we rely on others. The less we rely on others, the freer we are to seek our own personal fulfilments. This did not happen by chance. Someone in government worked to devote resources to achieve this aim and worked to create it. This achievement should not be taken for granted as we all know what happened in 1997, when Alfred |Sant’s government cut student stipends overnight. I do not agree with those who say that student stipends should go. Stipends are an important incentive for students to continue studying rather than enter the world of work too early only to discover that they are stuck there for the rest of their lives without being able to do much about it because of financial or social commitments they would have unwittingly made.

Fortunately for us, there are many types of intelligence and the incumbent government has created structures for students to pursue their own dream in the different spheres of pedagogical delivery. Some people are able to learn through intellectual action but others need to be stimulated by their other senses, like those of hearing, seeing or touching. Some students are very good at learning by touching and doing things combined with the theory that goes with it. Some learn better within apprenticeship schemes worked out in collaboration with industry, while others need to be seconded with industry to absorb the special skills that go with a particular job, skills that are not purely academic.

To achieve this aim, the PN did not only strengthen our university to the tune of accommodating 12,000 students but also set up other educational institutions to cater for other types of learning. ITS and MCAST, where incidentally I also teach, definitely meet these standards very well. Today, MCAST alone with its day and evening courses and new campus being built, attracts up to 8,000 students at all levels of education from “O” levels, to “A” levels, to diploma and degree courses, thus allowing those who work to further their education up to degree level in the evenings. Those who opt for full time education are able to gain both study and occupation experiences by being assigned to work placements while satisfying to academic needs. The PN has succeeded in bringing this about, where the student-worker scheme of the Socialist government failed miserably because of both misguided vision and lack of proper management. Closing MCAST at the time was one of them! Destroying the university was another. It only had 700 students at the time! What perhaps is needed now is more co-operation between the university and MCAST so that students can freely flow between one institution and the other without interruption of studies or duplication of work. Both institutions work within the Malta Qualifications Framework network, and with better flexibility there should be no problem with this. After all, MCAST graduates at “A” level are sucked up by uni- versities abroad as MCAST follows the British BTEC system of education, which qualifies students to start their own graduate studies at British universities. However, because of the specific mode of vocational teaching followed at MCAST, it should also not only remain endowed with the capacity of granting degrees as it has so ably done till now to students who might never have gone to university at all, but also the capacity to continue to introduce more and more vocational courses!

The PN has sponsored hundreds of post-graduate students in their studies abroad for Masters and Doctoral studies, so that gifted scholars can continue to pursue their dreams in their chosen profession and also gain experience by spending some time studying abroad. This is set to continue and increase. Mothers and fathers who opt to continue studying will now be provided with vouchers for free childcare services, while younger students will be provided with free electronic tablets to better introduce them to the methods of ICT technology. It is important that the PN is also promising to sponsor and directly fund students to travel abroad within a structured programme as travelling is an important part of education especially today within our membership of the EU, another PN brainwave so boldly rejected by the MLP. People who never travel miss out on an important part of their educational horizon, and there are many of these.

The PN has also upgraded primary and secondary schools and has built and will continue to build one new school a year, thanks to the Fund for Tomorrow’s Schools set up when Louis Galea was Minister of Education, which was so savagely lambasted in Parliament by Evarist Bartolo of the then MLP and now PL. Maybe it was these past mistakes that led Labour to carry out a rebranding exercise, at least papering over the cracks that so manifestly remain!

One of the most exciting promises for me in the PN electoral programme is the setting up of another vocational school of the “Juillard” style for the Performing Arts, including music, dancing, drama and art all under one roof rather than dispersed as they now are. It might be useful to set this up under the auspices of an existing college such as MCAST itself. This is because students from MCAST might be induced to take up these studies in part or in toto.

All in all, the PN has not only made our country independent but has given the country the tools necessary to grow in that independence, empowering work, education and health for all in a healthy environment that supports such growth. One should not be surprised that it now again promises to do much more of the same!