Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/821961
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 10 MAY 2017 5 News PN childcare proposal a 'poverty trap', Muscat insists YANNICK PACE PRIME Minister Joseph Muscat yester- day described the Nationalist Party's proposal to offer free childcare to all families across the board, as "a pover- ty trap," arguing that the point of free childcare is for the service to act as in- centive to get people to work. Muscat was addressing a press confer- ence together with education minister Evarist Bartolo, where he said that he could not understand the reasoning be- hind the proposal as there must always be a gap between the "benefit of staying home and the benefit of going to work". He added that the proposal could result in a situation where households become more dependent on social benefits. "I am yet to understand the economic and social purpose of the PN proposal," Muscat said, arguing that the proposal would be a disincentive for people to work, and would reverse the current trend of people coming off benefits and joining the workforce. The Prime Minister also questioned how the Nationalist Party would be paying for the measure, given that it was not addressing any particular problem. Similarly, Bartolo said that offering free childcare across the board risked ruining what had been achieved so far. "It will result in lower standards," he said. "The service must be provided in an area that is large enough, there must be a particular child-to-carer ratio." Bartolo added that it was difficult enough for operators to find carers, and questioned whether the PN envis- aged a system run by people who were not qualified. Bartolo stressed that the current sys- tem allows for the service to be avail- able in social cases where it was needed despite parents not being employed. During the press conference, Bartolo gave more details on the Labour Party's proposals for the education sector, reit- erating that a new Labour administra- tion would remove fees associated with MATSEC and SEC exams, and would ensure that public exams are sat at the school attended by the student. He in- sisted that this was part of a drive to normalise exams as much as possible in order to reduce the pressure placed on students. He also insisted that the pledge to of- fer free supervised transport to all stu- dents would benefit the students and also reduce traffic congestion during peak hours. Muscat underscored the fact that this measure would be struc- tured in a way that would not omit small bus service providers. "It won't be a winner takes all jumbo contract," he said. Other measures intended to reduce stress that will be explored by a new Labour government include a consul- tation on a national homework policy, and measures to reduce the weight of schoolbags. "We keep meeting parents who ask us how a nine-year-old girl can spend four or five hours doing homework," Barto- lo said, pointing out that schools with such a policy had shown better results than those that didn't. Turning to school teaching staff, Bar- tolo pointed out that the challenges faced by teachers in the class room had significantly increased and this needed to be taken into consideration. He said the government would start a process leading to improvements in the working conditions, adding that the government would have wanted to start the process earlier, however time was being given for elections of the president of the Malta Union of Teach- ers to come to an end. Moreover, he said the government wanted to introduce a learning out- comes framework in order to cut down on syllabi, which in many cases are too vast. "Teachers sometimes complain that the length of the syllabi and the time needed to cover it leaves no time for teaching," Bartolo said. He said that in addition to making it more realistic to teach, the change would also prevent teachers from burn- ing out. Finally, Bartolo discussed the Labour Party's proposal to see apprentices paid no less than the minimum wage, in- sisting that while the administration had overseen a ten-fold increase in the number of apprentices since 2013, the system could still be improved. Looking back at what had been achieved in the education sector, Bar- tolo pointed out that Malta had dou- bled its investment, and was probably the only country in Europe to have done so. He pointed to the introduction of interactive whiteboards, tablets, 3D printers in schools, as well as laptops for teaching staff as evidence that the government was committed to improv- ing the quality of education in Malta. This was echoed by Muscat who said that investment in education was not limited to the building of schools, add- ing that through the introduction of co-ed classrooms, the introduction of "different school pathways" and other measures, constituted a "silent revolu- tion" that had taken place in the educa- tion sector. Joseph Muscat (right) lambasted the PN's proposal stating that he is yet to understand the economic or social motive behind it Free school transport 'would not solve any problems' – MUT president MALTA Union of Teachers president Kevin Bonello has told MaltaToday that the Labour Party's proposal to offer all school students free transport would not solve anything, and risked increasing bullying on buses, despite the pro- posal including supervision. He explained that as things stand, there are already not enough vans and drivers, with the consequence that children are dropped off at school, in some cases, an hour and a half before the start of school. He expressed doubts about whether the gov- ernment could realistically ensure proper su- pervision. "People supervising children will have to be trained. 50 students on a bus is no joke," he said. "You need at least three or four supervisors for every coach." Instead, Bonello said the MUT had always advocated the use of public transport, which he said was just as safe and would help children develop better social skills while allowing them to arrive at school on time. The removal of fees for MATSEC and SEC examinations is a good idea which will offer a further incentive for students from poorer fam- ilies to sit for exams, however the measure is not likely to improve results "in any way", Bonello said. According to Bonello the measure is likely to negatively impact national averages because "students who never prepared for these exams would probably still give them a go" thus bring- ing down the national average. Bonello said he was also in favour of allow- ing students to sit for public exams at the same school they attend, arguing that this would have a positive impact on students. On a National Homework Framework – a proposal intended to deal with students spend- ing an excessive amount of time doing home- work – Bonello agreed that this was a good idea but insisted it must take place in parallel with an overhaul of syllabi, another of the Labour Party's proposals. Furthermore, he said that the proposal to reduce syllabus length and introduce learn- ing outcomes is positive, and one which is long overdue.