Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1287818
9 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 13 SEPTEMBER 2020 INTERVIEW 'but' – are we ready for the im- plementation stage? Are all the protocols in place? I'm not so sure. For one thing, it seems that not all schools are equally pre- pared. Independent schools, for instance, have been very well-organised from day one. Since the beginning of the pan- demic, they have managed to offer both on- and offline edu- cation. So much so, that lessons continued to be given regularly, even when schools were closed during the first few months of the crisis. Government schools, on the other hand… I am sorry to say it, but they weren't so well-or- ganised at all. And the same goes for Church schools, too. So I think we have to ask our- selves why this is happening. If independent schools could manage to make the necessary changes to ensure that children continued to receive education, even under those conditions… why were government schools not capable of doing the same? Meanwhile, the concerns with COVID-19 have to be balanced out by a recent UN report which places Malta at 34th out of 41 countries in terms of child well-being. Would you say this is also, in part, the result of flaws in our education system? The way I see it, COVID-19 should really serve as an eye-opener for us to rethink the way we educate our children in general. Despite all the resourc- es we invest in education – and Malta is, I think, one of the EU countries that invests the most in the sector – our results have consistently been very poor. Very poor indeed. So I think the education au- thorities should take this as an opportunity to make all the necessary changes to the syllabi. This is something we have been talking about for years now; my own background is in edu- cation, and I remember having these discussions well over a decade ago. Long before COVID-19, we were already talking about re- forming the syllabi… for in- stance, to make them less 'in- formation-heavy'. The idea was to focus more on skills, rather than just information. At the same time, however, there were teachers who resist- ed these changes. In some cases, it may have down to a fear that their own subject would lose a little 'prestige' or 'importance' within the syllabus. But part of the reason – and this is where my office comes in to the picture – is that our education system doesn't place enough emphasis on the rights of the child. For instance: in one of the focus group discussions we organise, one of the children told us that: 'Teachers don't want us to speak, because if we show how much we know, they will feel challenged.' I think that this child had a point. I'm sorry to say this, but our mindset, in general, is not focused enough on children's needs. If we don't even give our children the chance to speak… if teachers keep insisting they are always right, for fear of los- ing their authority… how can we expect our children to develop skills such as critical thinking? Earlier you mentioned the 'poor results' obtained by Malta in in- ternational education rankings. Would you say that this is also in part due to the system not plac- ing the child at its centre? It is definitely one of the rea- sons, yes. But I have to point out that it is not always the fault of the schools themselves, or indi- vidual teachers. Parents are also up to a point responsible. It's a vicious circle. Parents put pressure on the school to, for instance, give their children more homework. Because their reasoning is that, if teachers don't give a lot of homework… it means they're 'not doing their job well'. And yet, we are supposed to have policies to determine how much homework a child is given; and 'more homework' does not translate into 'better education'. We hear of cases, for instance, where children are made to stay up late because of the sheer amount of homework they are given; and this is simply not on. It has a direct effect on the child's mental well-being. That, too, is part of the reason why we're not achieving the de- sired results. Another widely known issue is the relatively high level of ab- senteeism from schools. Much of the resistance to schools re-opening has so far come from parents, citing health con- cerns. But let's face it, there has always been a certain level of resistance… as attested by the high number of fines handed down for absenteeism. Is this also why you are so adamant on schools re-opening in the first place? There are many people out there – and we know this, also because we've received a lot of messages, including from people in the education sector – who are concerned about the idea that schooling is no longer consid- ered as 'compulsory'. Because this is the message that is being sent out by the author- ities: that it is 'OK' not to send your children to school. It has even been argued that it is a parent's 'right' to keep their children at home, given that there are health concerns. And there has been talk about the possibility of amending the exist- ing laws, to temporarily remove the legal obligation in view of the pandemic. But the reality is that parents have a legal and moral duty to send their children to school. And this is not something that can so easily be put aside; es- pecially now, when we know so much more about this virus, and how to effectively manage it in a school environment. So yes; I am very worried about a possible reversal of all the achievements we have made in past decades. Malta was among the first countries to ratify the international conventions about compulsory schooling. After World War II, there was a drive to boost education as much as possible… to counter the ex- treme poverty that existed at the time; to increase opportunities, and to provide the population with much-needed skills Times have changed since then; but this does not lessen the need for education today. The poor results we keep getting, alone, at- test to this… Are you arguing, then, that the risks posed by COVID-19 are not justification enough to out- weigh the legal obligation to send children to school? Yes; but it's not just me. It is al- so in the WHO guidelines them- selves. The risks run by children who stay away from school, are greater than their risk of con- tracting COVID-19. So what I'm suggesting, to all those concerned – the schools, the teachers, the parents, the unions, the politicians – is: let's all put our heads together, and make our schools safe for our children and our teachers. Let's not succumb to fear. We can make it work. There are individual schools which have managed to get themselves or- ganised; so it can be done. And with all the resources at our dis- posal… I think we can make it work on the national level, too.