Respecting teachers, children
In his numerous publications and extensive research, our late colleague, Prof. Ronald Sultana, one of Malta’s most prominent educators, often focussed on quality education. He constantly reminded his Faculty of Education colleagues of the importance of this and of the necessity to safeguard and promote it.
For Ronald, in education there is no room for half-measures or for compromise. These could only lead to progressive decay, the victims of which would be learners, the very persons who education aims to serve. More so, among these victims, the more vulnerable would be bound to suffer more than those who might find support at home, because of their better socio-economic status.
In a seminal 2002 paper, Ronald spoke of quality education in terms of five categories, namely entitlement, effectiveness, equity, economy, and empowerment. They captured the very essence of education, in terms of its undertaking to impart knowledge, while also providing opportunities for reflection and to develop the individual’s potential through personal and collective endeavour. Education is not only about learning skills, addressed at today’s workplace which, in all probability, will become outdated by the time our learners are in employment.
As cliché as it may sound, quality and excellence in a profession can only be achieved when those who are engaged in the sector are truly treated as professionals, and when they themselves are trusted by the community they serve and by the authorities who guide them. Becoming a professional, in any sector, inevitably involves extensive preparation, geared at developing all the required competences: who would, for example, choose to visit a doctor or ask advice from an architect who is not fully qualified in his or her field?
Nevertheless, insofar as educators are concerned, we rarely, if ever, make such reflections, to the extent that we sometimes accept unquestioningly that some individuals to whom our children are entrusted are not fully qualified to carry out their role. These could include carers engaged in the early-years sectors, support educators and supply teachers.
While we are fully aware that many of these persons carry out their duties with dedication and care, as a country we have not yet come to terms with the true professional role of the teacher. We have put all educators in the same basket, never really clarifying roles and giving what is due to the different professional roles within the sector. Worse still is that to compensate for problems of recruitment and deployment, ‘provisional’ or ‘supply’ roles, which should constitute interim measures, have become longterm solutions.
Recent figures of those in ‘supply’ employment in education provide indications that they are on the rise and that resolving the issue, assuming that there is an intention to resolve it, has become so complex that our educational authorities – past and present – seem to have thrown in the towel. The solution of providing in-service training, based on apprenticeship models which often have major limitations, seems to have taken root, to the extent that it is not questioned anymore. Conversely, the preparation of teachers in countries where they hold a high status in society does not cut corners – the title of ‘teacher’, within such contexts, carries prestige and demands respect.
In our local scenario, one cannot avoid mentioning the working conditions of teachers and other educators, which are still a far cry from what they deserve. It is sad to note that this matter too has been largely unresolved, despite repeated electoral promises.
While we underline that educating is not only about the pay package, we cannot fail to remind our authorities that educators require more support, that school management teams in some institutions struggle in order to cope with their learners’ demands and that, among other problems related to envisaging schools as communities of learning, the involvement of parents has dwindled, especially in the State sector.
All the above begs the question: is teaching today really a profession? Or maybe, even more pertinently, is there the will to value quality education by supporting our educators comprehensively? One may argue that, on paper, these issues have been addressed, in one way or another. Over the years, many policy documents and strategies have been published, together with a new education legislation, parts of which, appallingly, have never seen the light of day.
Unfortunately, much of this documentation has not been evaluated comprehensively and, as a result, their positive effects were not fully exploited, and their negative ones were not eradicated. Their implications were not fully considered either. Take, for example, the fact that teacher-student ratio in Maltese schools is still healthy, it is indeed above the EU average. Yet, we are facing shortages in a number of subject areas: is this the result of fragmentation?
In secondary schools, for example, learners have countless options which, apart from causing time-tabling and logistic problems, sometimes lead to very small-size classes, which obviously all require the services of teaching staff, support educators etc.
What are the implications of this? Is today’s curriculum, and the introduction of an outcome-based system, addressing the needs of our learners?
The PISA results (2022), which report below OECD-average scores in maths, reading and science, seem to suggest otherwise. While, in some sectors, there is reform-fatigue, in others stagnancy reigns supreme: take, for example, the Sixth Form sector, where proposed reforms have remained on paper for years.
Education in Malta desperately needs long-term measures geared towards quality: these would, first and foremost, ensure that the sector becomes more stimulating and attractive enough to draw persons, especially youths, towards it and to guarantee that those engaged in the profession do not feel the inclination to leave. It would safeguard our educators who would be adequately remunerated and supported on the basis of experience and expertise.
A profession which has poor prospects – in which one’s initial employment conditions remain largely unchanged as the years go by – is unsustainable. Clear competence standards need to be set for teacher-education programmes and for courses offered by entities that, among others, provide formation for earlychildhood and support educators, as well as for school managers, who will eventually take on leadership roles.
While the education legislation was approved by parliament in 2019, the parts of it which regulate teacher education (the so called ‘Professions in Education Act’ proposed and discussed between 2016 and 2018) have not been addressed in practice.
Clear legislation is indispensable for a vital profession, and it is unbefitting to refer to the 1988 Education Act to determine who qualifies as a teacher today. This matter cannot be delayed further, and our educational authorities should strive to clarify and modernise the whole legislative framework of our system.
The recent process launched to discuss and propose a new Strategy for Education could be another opportunity to set the record straight. We cannot waste it. We cannot fall into the same pitfalls of the past. If we do so, quality education will suffer yet another blow and teaching as a profession will risk having to face further irreparable consequences.
This opinion piece was prepared by Michelle Attard Tonna, Colin Calleja, Carmel Borg, Jonathan Borg, Leonard Busuttil, Sandro Caruana, Louise Chircop and Adrian-Mario Gellel, the Core Group of the Conversations in Education initiative following a conversation with academics within the Faculty Education at the University of Malta. The Conversations in Education brings together academics and educators to reflect and discuss issues impacting education in Malta.
“Is teaching today really a profession?