Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1172208
25 OPINION maltatoday | SUNDAY • 29 SEPTEMBER 2019 61,000 futures Evarist Bartolo Evarist Bartolo is Minister for Education and Employment IN the past week, over 61,000 students started their scho- lastic year. It's not the highest number for a country, but when one thinks about it you also feel a daunting responsi- bility towards each and every one of them. In education, we are often judged by the collec- tive. How many have passed, how many have continued post-sec and tertiary and so on. But each and every educa- tor we have in schools works tirelessly every day to provide a future to each and every one of those 61,000 young people. In 20, 30 years' time that group of people will be the engine and energy of our country. The values they see today represented in their teachers and the adults in their lives will be the values of the Maltese society then. It's a collective result, but an individual challenge for all. These things are often missed by the population at large, but the immense responsibility on the shoul- ders of our educators is truly incredible especially when one considers the amount of responsibility there is on the curriculum front as well. That is why I think we should appreciate more our teachers as a society and the enormous commitment they have towards our children, and our society. Capital investment in schools Some of our primary schools were built over a hundred years ago and they are often in the core area of the town or village. Over the past years a lot of investment has poured into school infrastructure. Since 2013 we have diversi- fied our financial resources, funded by taxpayers, to a wide net of schools. The reasoning was very simple: in a college of ten schools you can't have one or two grand ballroom- type schools and eight others in disrepair. Tens of millions have been invested in the infrastructure of schools, and in most cases, it also required expansion within the building. The challenge in most primary schools are two-fold. First you have the issue of availability. You can't exactly refurbish the school during the scholastic year. Anyone who is building anything knows that the availability of supply in the construction industry and limiting yourself to just three months creates a lot of issues. The second is the building themselves, as they're old and were probably not build originally to accom- modate a school. We have created a num- ber of workarounds, such as temporary classrooms. This allows the division between the building and students, allowing construction to take place in a safe environment. All prefabricated classrooms are temporary until works are concluded, however we still invested heavily to make sure no student has one less resource than they would have gotten in their previous class- room. In most cases there are some perks that one wouldn't find in other classes, such as air-conditioning, which is present in all pre-fabricated classes. Have we refurbished eve- rywhere? Absolutely not. There's still a lot to come and I, for one, understand pa- rental concern when photos are published of below-par infrastructure. The reality is that primary schools built ages ago require a lot of work and, in terms of sustainability, it would make more sense to have new ones. In some cases this process has already started. Talk to us | 2131 2020 | bov.com REWARD YOURSELF AT THE POINT SHOPPING MALL BOV CARDS Earn points in the BOV Loyalty Rewards Programme every single me you use your BOV Visa Pla num, BOV Visa Gold or your BOV Skypass. Issued by Bank of Valle a p.l.c., 58, Triq San Żakkarija, Il-Belt Valle a VLT 1130. Bank of Valle a p.l.c. is a public limited company regulated by the MFSA and is licensed to carry out the business of banking in terms of the Banking Act (Cap. 371 of the Laws of Malta).