Rumour has it that Education Minister Louis Galea is on his way out. Probably his days in party politics are over now, and is being tantalized by the idea to graze fresh pastures. No surprise at all!
Our people have become accustomed with the idea of musical chairs especially during the past 20 years. Perhaps he has in mind to leave party politics and electoral tussle in a bang! Education has made it to the top of this electoral campaign agenda and it is no surprise as our people believe in it, in its role in our society and foresees it as the key to success in one’s life.
This is positive value and almost all the Maltese believe they should invest in their children’s education. The latest controversy that sparked just on the onset of the electoral campaign is a proposal by the Labour Party to introduce a Reception Class for students moving from kindergarten to primary school.
Reception classes promote the social skills and developing mathematical understanding of young children through stories, songs, rhymes and finger games, board games, sand and water, construction on a large and small scale, imaginative play, outdoor play and ‘playground’ games, cooking and shopping, two- and three-dimensional creative work with a range of materials, and by observing numbers and patterns in the environment and daily routines.

Blunt lie
This proposal was labelled as a repeater year for all our children whilst moving from the kindergarten to the primary. This proposal is not something exclusive to our islands or just an illusionary idea by the Labour Party, but is found in other countries too, including the UK.
Those who have any doubts can download tonnes of material on the subject from the internet. Definitely, this reception class is not meant to be a repeater class. Those who claim so have not understood anything, and now I can understand much better why we always hit the lowest places in the statistics provided by the EU on the sector. I can understand better why we are far behind the targets as set by the Lisbon Agenda.
Moreover, up to now this is only a proposal, and when the time is ripe to implement it, a Labour Government will have the decency to consult with all the stakeholders. It is only after then that the implementation process will start. Honestly speaking I can’t understand why all this fuss when in reality all these reactions are simply to a proposal.

Pressing Issues
Currently there are much more pressing issues in the sector, and no one seems to make much a fuss about them! And to complicate the matter, even the MUT seems to have entered the fray when one of the dailies contacted the union’s president John Bencini.
The following is a quote from The Malta Independent: “The Malta Union of Teachers does not agree with the Malta Labour Party’s proposal to add another year through a reception class between kindergarten and primary schooling, saying that it will cost millions of Euros that could easily be invested elsewhere.”
In my opinion, the deception is in the fact that instead of discussing the real issues and problems affecting the sector right now, all efforts are focused on deflecting the attention from a proposal that eventually everyone will have the chance to forward input. Could it be an attempt to hide the colossal deficiencies that unfortunately affect the sector at the moment? The people will soon judge on this!
At present a fundamental reform is being implemented in the secondary sector. Most people in the sector claim that eventually this reform will contribute to further problems, rather than resolving previous ones. With whom did they consult on the implementation of the colleges?
Most of the teachers are still in the dark and do not know what’s going to take place. No one dared to explain these changes. Probably, no one has the guts to do so, not even those who now, as a result of changes in structure of Directorates, are very well paid when compared to the teaching grades. Is this the style to move on and push forward fundamental reforms in such an important sector? Mind you, now I’m not referring to a proposal, but to what actually is taking place in our schools!
Our model of colleges’ network as implemented will eventually lead to various problems already familiar with most educators who experienced something similar decades ago. This ‘new’ brand of comprehensive schooling, whereby the implementation is already at an advanced stage (e.g., St Benedict College and St Ignatius College) there are already signs of concern and amongst most of teachers, students and parents alike to this hotchpotch style of schooling.

St Ignatius Boys’ Secondary
Incidentally, the district I contest consists of the same geographical localities forming part of St Ignatius College. Ironically, it is also the same district that the Minister Louis Galea contests. A lot has already been said about St Ignatius Boys’ Secondary and about the monumental ‘gift’ that this benevolent government will be rewarding to the people forming part of our electoral district!
Being within the boundaries that the Minister contests one would expect that the building of a new school would result in a state of the art establishment, and one that contributing to a model college. Whilst doing my home visits within the district it resulted that not all that glitters is gold! Behind the prominent physical façade there are crucial deficiencies that form the crux of educational process.
Everyone welcomes any improvement in both the physical environment and the methods of teaching and learning. After repeated pleas from constituents and restricted crosschecking it transpires that with regard to the physical side of this new project, it does not include a school hall, it has very restricted playing grounds for students, a disproportionate small school library when compared to the school’s population, structural defects are already visible and there is limited shelter for students during rainy days.
On the curricular side there are other problems; adaptation problems for teachers who come from a junior lyceum environment, and have to teach a wider spectrum of academic diversity ranging from bright students to very low achievers (three schools in one: junior lyceum, secondary school and opportunity centre); copious disciplinary problems, newly appointed school’s administration that still has to find its feet after the previous school administration has been mysterious transferred to other schools and problems of coercion from a senior official (follow link http://www.mut.org.mt/).
These are only some of the problems at St Ignatius Boys’ Secondary. In my opinion, the apex of all this figures itself in the fact that no one seems to be interested to run the institute as a head of school. Despite the official call to fill the vacancy (Circular OPS/42/2007), no one seems to be interested to run this prestigious school! Why not?

Call a spade, a spade
The problems at St Ignatius Boys’ Secondary are not unique but similar to what’s going on in other schools. It is worth asking why only a handful of people are interested in becoming heads of schools, despite the generous package resulting from the recent historic collective agreement.
In the meantime, Mr Bencini and his union will most likely be dealing with a greater number of members who will be seeking refuge as a result of hasty implementation of reform and a collective agreement that is outbalanced by putting in place the structure at the upper part of the hierarchy rather than directing efforts to improve the teaching and learning methods. Likewise the MUT we too agree that “better education cannot be attained without direct investment in educators.”
To this effect the Labour Party is proposing to decrease the class population. The reaction of Mr Bencini to this was “he agreed with the MLP’s proposal to decrease the number of children in classes – especially during kindergarten years.”
“The union had put forward this proposal to the government and it was rejected – we were very disappointed as we believe that the children need more individual attention during those years.”
Meanwhile, to all those who believe that everything is shining with regard to education, the following is a quote from a circular issued recently by the MUT. “The Malta Union of Teachers is organizing a mass rally for all educators in Malta. The subject of the mass rally is the arising injustice with the Education Class. The MUT sustains that the education class is being subjected to numerous demands and ever increasing pressures notwithstanding that improvement in working conditions and financial compensation have been hard to come by in all sectors. The MUT urges all educators, in all categories and from all sectors, to attend the rally and show their support of the Union’s stand in favour of investment in people apart from investment in buildings and amenities. Better education cannot be attained without direct investment in educators.”
Fortunately enough, even in this sector a new beginning will start soon!