Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/187071
22 Opinion maltatoday, SUNDAY, 6 OCTOBER 2013 The way forward starts by sitting down A t a time when research is showing today's children have diminished attention spans, it is worrying to note how detached the current education system is. In media, news bursts are the order of the day, rather than more in-depth news stories. People seem to be willing to absorb a maximum of 140 characters and disconnect not long after. Newspapers are avoiding the continuation of a news article on an inside page, simply because people are not willing, or couldn't be bothered, to continue reading. While maintaining attention spans was considered the norm in the past, human behaviour is changing in a way that a sustained attention span is now considered a skill. This is also occurring in a wider context and not just media: for example, the urge of people in meetings to check their phones for messages. Whether educators like it or not, this situation is also very much the reality in classrooms. There seems to be an ever-growing space between the educator and the student, due to a digital and cultural divide. We take note of the risk that the education system will speak in a language or behave in a way that students simply don't comprehend. University students know this too well as they listen to lectures read out from yellowed, ageing notes and disconnect the second they switch on their laptops. Evarist Bartolo The education train, made up of a constant one-way flow of information, must be seriously reconsidered. Similar to market research for a product, we must sit down with the recipients of the education system, the students, and ask them what they think of it all. We need to find out what drives them, what stimulates them and what raises their interest levels. This also means that we must evaluate the militaristic style and chain of command of a typical school and treat a child's opinion as equal to an adult. Children are exceedingly intuitive and value respect, perhaps even if not fully comprehending the principle itself. Reaching out to them can give us an insight of what they'd like to get out of the subject or class, and we are in a better position to deliver. Many times decisions have been taken in the education system from the top down, and this is something we're aiming to change. This will start by empowering schools and colleges to take their own decisions and bringing a democratic framework to the system. The one-size-fitsall model just doesn't work when we're talking about different schools in different communities with different strengths and shortcomings. By removing such barriers we allow for a more tailor-made approach and the considerable challenges and issues can be dealt with more freely, within an administrative framework that doesn't act as an anchor to the school's progress. More importantly when we do sit down and listen to students we need to give value to their opinions. Listening for the sake of listening gives you an even worse result – disillusionment – and this is picked on immediately at a young age. In the digital age, if the education system closes its doors on children it is doing so at its own risk. It simply will not work and will implode. The educational Children are exceedingly intuitive and value respect, perhaps even if not fully comprehending the principle itself. Reaching out to them can give us insight experience needs to be fluid, ever changing and reach the student's expectations. As hard as it is to admit for some, a failing student is never completely on his or her own – blame falls also on the system for failing to hold a student's interest. Attendance sheets in post-secondary education sometimes feel like a forceful imposition to attend. The goal is to have students willingly attend because they are attracted to interesting lessons backed by creative ideas and personal initiative. There has been a lot of work in the past months towards this goal. The democratisation of schools is the first step, but similar initiatives are in the pipeline to bring back stature to school management. Technology is an important aspect of the modern classroom, and a number of pilot projects are being prepared for the coming months to look into how new technologies can help the educator sit down, listen and provide a more stimulating way of communicating and making sure students of all ages don't turn off their educational experience. Evarist Bartolo is Minister for Education CHECK OUT EVARIST BARTOLO'S LATEST COLUMNS ON http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/blogs Unjustified 'smear' will not hide the truth L ast weekend, MaltaToday published anonymous allegations that I had been sacked from the BioMalta Foundation after having been paid €750,000. Both these allegations are untrue and seem to form part of the inexplicable smear against me and others whose sole objective was to help Malta progress in the international field of biosciences. MaltaToday may have acted in good faith when presented with so-called 'evidence' to support the claims being made, but regrettably they did not seek to verify that information or attempt to check the information with me, or to seek an explanation, which would have revealed the truth – and that is a very different story. Until now, I had no knowledge of the political furore in Malta over the appointment of a government minister's wife as an envoy acting on behalf of Malta Enterprise. I have no idea of the details of this, but it has clearly led to some political point scoring, and I appear to have been caught in the crossfire. I left Malta for the last time on 14 March of this year, and these are the facts of my involvement on the island: I was never awarded a contract worth €750,000. I proposed an initiative and work programme, involving world-leading biomedical experts, designed to give Malta an unprecedented opportunity to establish a real presence on the Chris Evans international biosciences scene. This proposal – which would have cost in the region of €750,000 – was rejected by Malta Enterprise, which cited a lack of budget resources. I was contracted to chair the BioMalta Foundation for a series of board meetings, and these meetings were held. For this work, I was paid €75,000 per annum, from June 2011. While I served the Foundation, I worked with other leading biomedical experts. Their fees were entirely separate to any of my remuneration. Any sensible audit of my contract and the Foundation's accounting records will show the current position, as I expect those who were behind these outrageous allegations must already know. When Malta Enterprise rejected the comprehensive work programme I had proposed, I made it clear to Malta Enterprise that I would not be attempting to deliver this programme with no budget and no team to do the work. It has been very frustrating to see the efforts that I made, along with people such as Dr Mike Hudson and Dr Per Wold-Olsen, on behalf of the BioMalta Foundation now being traduced. The work carried out by Dr Hudson and other consultants working for him was indeed formulated into a credible strategy and presented at the BMF board meetings. At each of these board meetings, good ideas based on the expert knowledge of myself, Hudson and Wold-Olsen were provided to Malta Enterprise. Prime Minister Gonzi asked me to bring a stem-cell banking and therapeutic capability to Malta. At my own expense, I arranged for a team of It has been very frustrating to see the efforts that I made on behalf of the BioMalta Foundation now being traduced US and UK stem-cell experts to spend two days in Malta, working up an excellent initiative. Embarrassingly, then Malta Enterprise told them they had no money so that project was stopped. We were asked to design and plan for a Maltese blood products plant. We did the work, and the project was also abandoned by Malta Enterprise. The matter came to a head on 14 March of this year, when I flew from London to Malta for a BioMalta Foundation board meeting. Per Wold-Olsen also flew in, and we stayed at the Le Meridien St Julian's Hotel. Bizarrely, we were informed by messenger that the board meeting had been cancelled. During a meeting that morning I informed Mario Galea I was leaving Malta and was quitting as the chairman of the Foundation, as I found recent dealings with Malta Enterprise to be wholly unprofessional. I was most certainly not sacked, as there had been no suggestion to that point of any lack of delivery by me or my colleagues in the Foundation. Only some weeks after I had already made my position known, I received an email from Malta Enterprise saying my contract would be terminated and requesting that I sign a mutual termination agreement, which I refused to do. I am deeply disappointed that the efforts of myself and others of international reputation to assist Malta on biosciences were in vain. I was not alone in thinking (friends and colleagues in Malta support this view) that Malta is not best served in this field by Malta Enterprise. Indeed this latest attempt to smear my name only serves to underline that fact.