Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/388498
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER 2014 13 not bother trying… just imagine how much damage that causes, especially if it is reinforced at both school and family level." The same 2014-2024 strategy, he continues, aims in part to narrow- ing the academic gap by providing exposure to alternative educational environments. "For example, the opening of child- care centres, subsidised at three euros an hour, is a big step forward educationally. It is not just a labour active policy to entice parents to go to work. It gives children from the age of one and a half the opportu- nity to be with others, to be put in a stimulating educational context, and that will help them a lot later on in life. Today – and this is very excit- ing, neuro-science discoveries tell us that, where before we used to think that a person's emotive and cognitive development would be imprinted by the age of five, a second window of opportunity opens at the age of 11 and 12. That is where we come in: if, in our educational system, we miss that second window, then probably we will be condemning our young people to a life of failure. Naturally it's still crucial to positively influence kids up to the age of five. But we used to think that if we missed that bus, we've missed it forever. Now, thank goodness, we know better." Armed with this knowledge, the first concrete change to the educa- tional system was the creation of middle schools. "We've brought the 11-12 age bracket together, taking them away from secondary schools and placing them in smaller enti- ties so that we can reach them more directly. It's one thing being a first- former in a school of 700, where there is the whole range from form one to form five. It's another thing to be in a school of 250-300, where you only have first and second formers, while the third, fourth and fifth formers are in another school of 400." Bartolo admits that part of the motivation for this change was to address a worrying upward trend in bullying at school. "At middle school, the other children will only be at most a year older… and not three or four years older. That is very im- portant, because most bullying takes place between kids of disparate ages. And with that, we've combined the notion of co-education. From this year, all our middle schools are co- ed. Personally I think it's completely ridiculous to have kids of both sexes together at all ages, but not between 11 and 16. Countries like Bangla- desh, Pakistan, Iran, and other coun- tries where, for religious reasons, they keep girls and boys segregated… well, we can understand that culture, but why should we have it here?" These changes, he adds, should in their totality reform not just the present educational system, but also our national perception of what edu- cation even is. Here he vents a little frustration at a recurring motif in this regard: the underlying belief that education serves a purely practical purpose related solely to one's future career. "I don't agree at all with narrowing the concept of education as 'prepar- ing you for your life of work'. God forbid it was just about preparing you for a career. However grandiose it sounds, I think education should prepare you for life. Work forms one part of the life skills you're going to need later on. But you will also need to be a democratic, critical citizen: not to be taken for a ride by those who run the country, for instance; and to be able to communicate with others, to take initiative, to solve problems… Basically, to be a person who can participate as fully as possi- ble in what is going on around you." Interview Education Minister Evarist Bartolo defends his ministry's demands for children's personal data as a first step in a comprehensive educational reform was never to pry' PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD