Can anyone tell me when a school is a school in Malta? Schools of all sorts keep mushrooming everywhere, and although there is a law which provides that schools must have a licence people continue to defy the law and advertise their unlicensed schools for the authorities to see and to continue to ignore.
In practice, you do not need to have a licence to open a school. You do not need to have a Malta Environment & Planning Authority permit to open a school. You might think that what I am saying is crazy, as there is a law which states that schools must have a licence from the Ministry of Education and that any building which houses them must have a MEPA permit which reflects the change of use of that building to a school, or the use of that building as a school.
But MEPA and the education authorities continue to turn a blind eye to the situation, and do not take action against those who are operating without a licence. I refer to all kinds of schools, from schools of music, art, cookery, hair and beauty – you name it, you dream about it, and all you do is advertise and let the business roll.
We read about them in the press: how this school has just opened here and there, and then you get to know through the grapevine that that school is unlicensed, the building has no MEPA permit and notwithstanding, the authorities allow these illegal operations to continue, making themselves accomplices to such illegalities.
There is no rule which states that the use of the word ‘school’ must carry with it the licence number given by the education authorities. This means that the consumer, in this case the students and the parents of the students, is most of the time being taken for a ride. Let’s face it, when you see or read the word ‘school’ you take it for granted that everything is above board and that once you are advertising a school, the school is properly licensed and geared with the expertise and equipment for the running of that school.
Now if the building and the operation is illegal, you can imagine how qualified the teachers who teach in these schools actually are. There is no control and no regulation in this respectm either. The people in charge of these schools can engage whomever they want, and poor consumers are being taken for a ride by these unscrupulous people who only see money in their students faces. The students attending these schools are left in the dark as to whether they are being taught by licensed or unlicensed instructors.
As one music teacher told me recently, in Malta you can wake up one fine day and decide to become a music teacher, as there is no regulation in this either. Worse still, parents are made to pay exorbitant fees for music exams which their children do not need. But the education authorities, who have more generals than soldiers at present, have so far seen nothing wrong and continue to let these people flout the law and fool the people.
As far as I know the Education Act makes it clear that a person or institution wishing to establish a private school is given the right to apply for a licence from the Minister of Education. But it seems that this law does not apply to all schools.
The system is still very rudimentary. It is not only the Ministry of Education which doles out licences for schools, but there are other authorities that do so too. Driving schools are licensed by Transport Malta – but then nautical courses are run by people without a license.
Worse still, in Malta you can get a licence to operate a driving school without knowing how to drive. To obtain a school licence in other countries, you will need your instruction permit, your driver education completion certificate, as well as having held a valid instruction permit during the six consecutive months immediately preceding application for a school license – during which period your driving record must be clear of convictions for moving traffic violations and contributive accidents.
I am surprised how schools which are officially licensed do not protest against this flagrant abuse of the system – how they are ready to continue to pay for their licence when other ‘schools’ are allowed to operate without one. I cannot understand how the parents do not bother to enquire with the authorities whether the school they are sending their children to is adequately licensed and that everything is above board.
There is no doubt that the whole system must be revamped and centralized so that all schools, of whatever sort, become regularized so that nobody can operate without a licence. I augur that I will live to that day when the licence number will be made mandatory against the name of every school in Malta and Gozo. We cannot continue to live in this confusion when the education authorities have no control over the schools that are opening in Malta and over the staff that teaches in these schools.
It is very odd to have a system which requires teachers to have a licence to work in the classroom, and teachers to do a test every year to have their licence renewed... and at the same time those who are operating without a licence have the blessing to engage teaching staff without skills or licence.
Last year, after the European Institute of Education scandal exposed by Labour MP Evarist Bartolo, the Ministry of Education assured that it was working on draft laws to fully regulate private provision by creating the structures to license, accredit and quality-assure further and higher education. But so far nothing materialised and we still do not know if degrees awarded by EIE are recognised by other universities.
The Ministry must not only work on the draft laws it promised us last October, but also on a new definition of ‘school’: so that each school of whatever kind is licensed by the education department, which will assume responsibility to ensure that every school carries the licence number next to its name, and to create the structures it promised us to licence, accredit and quality assure the services given by all schools of all sorts.
Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below. Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.
