Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/893950
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 29 OCTOBER 2017 Opinion 24 D uring educational events, I often mention how the role of the teacher is much harder than that of a Minister. This isn't to disrespect a ministerial position, but I know how difficult it has become to teach a class, day after day. Earlier in my career, I was a teacher. Some of the challenges which educators tell me they face today are not too different from ones I had to confront back in the day. In other elements of the job, progress means some issues from my time have been resolved, others have intensified and new ones have definitely cropped up. Schools are often the melting pot of society. They face the wrath of a culmination of societal issues which can be isolated in everyday life, but intersect in a school. The behaviour of some pupils is one of them. There is a small number of youngsters who come from difficult social situations. It would be wrong to dehumanise them, and start referring to them with derogatory adjectives. I've met some over the past four years, and I know they're no angels. As educators we have two options: we can either abdicate responsibility or try to find real, tangible solutions that values them as human beings. I know it is easy for me to say this, but we have many success stories of young people, labelled with the nastiest adjectives, who turned their life around with the right educational setting, support and programmes. Let's build more of those rather than abdicate. Despite what it seems, today, in schools, there has never been so much aid and help to achieve this, both in terms of resources and human capital. This also means that schools and teachers need the support of the wider community. The absolute vast majority are supportive parents who have a very good relationship with the school and just want to see their child get a positive educational experience. However, as with everywhere in life, there are a few bad apples. We have a zero-tolerance approach to any individual who goes to school with an air of entitlement and arrogance with the aim of trying to bully staff. This is unacceptable and, as I often tell school leaders, they should feel empowered knowing they have the total support of the administrators in education and myself. At the moment, the Government is negotiating with the Malta Union of Teachers on the financial package and conditions of educators and teachers. First off, it is important to understand where we've started. We did not start from a good place, because from 2005 onwards (and even before) salaries and allowances had not improved much. Previous administrations, despite their honourable words, neglected the teaching profession and over the past twenty years the financial gap with other roles, not just in the public sector but also in the private one, has increased considerably. Our job is to close that gap and make sure teachers are well paid, because, while I acknowledge that teaching issues go beyond financial matters, teachers cannot live on compliments and nice words alone. As negotiations continue on this front, it is important to emphasise other areas which we need to work on: • The respect and mental well- being of educators. • The need for teachers to be at the centre of curricular and pedagogical changes. • Quality up-skilling opportunities. • Incentives for young people to become educators. • The Education Act. • More flexible opportunities for supply teachers to earn a regular position. These are all priorities which we will address in the coming months. We must address them because teachers are an invaluable element in the progress of the next generation, and paired with that, the whole country. We have come a long way in recent years. We have opened doors for pupils wishing to learn in different ways, we've improved the social support services, investment in education has doubled, we've improved technological resources in schools and introduced a wide array of new opportunities for young people. But there is a lot more that we need to do. As I said, being a teacher is a tough job. It's harder than being a Minister. But at the end of the day, despite all the difficulties, it is a very rewarding job because you can truly make a difference in a child 's life and a lot of our teachers are doing that. They deserve much better. Evarist Bartolo is minister for education and employment Teachers deserve much better I t might have nothing to do with the ongoing protest outside Castille Palace, but whoever came up with the hashtag 'Occupy Castille' (and all the corresponding headlines) should really stop and think. For one thing, the actual name of the event is 'Occupy Justice'. And yes, I know... it models itself on the 2011 'Occupy Wall Street' movement, which involved the symbolic reclamation of a physical space to make a purely political point. In this case, the physical space happens to be named 'Castille Square'. So why not just condense that into 'Occupy Castille', and get it over with? Erm... things aren't quite that simple, I'm afraid. 'Castille' is not just a physical space. It is also the seat of government in this country: the local equivalent of the White House, 10 Downing Street or the Bundeskanzleramt. Occupying that sort of space is hardly the same thing as 'Occupying Wall Street'. In fact, had the eponymous American movement chosen the seat of US government for its occupation, instead of New York's financial district... well, I shudder to imagine the consequences. It would rightly have to be considered an attempted coup d'etat... But if that example is too transatlantic for you, there are also correlations right here is Europe. In 2006, protesters against the Iraq War staged a similar camp-out on Parliament Square in front of the UK's House of Parliament. It was a peaceful and perfectly legitimate protest... but unlike Malta (where the rule of law has apparently broken down completely) they were chased out by the police, and their tents all forcibly removed. Some stoically resisted, but eventually – after lengthy court battles, etc – the last tent was cleared away by 2011. New by- laws have meanwhile made it illegal to try that stunt again. Strangely, however, I don't seem to recall the European Parliament debating 'the collapse of rule of law' in the United Kingdom, when that country was busy mobilising its police force to suppress freedom of expression in the heart of its capital city. Ah well, that was then. Perhaps now, after Brexit, they'd react differently... But anyway: those protesters did not threaten to 'Occupy 10 Downing Street'. They only protested against what was, after all, an illegal war. And just look how they were treated. How would the government of Britain have reacted had they chosen the 'Occupy 10 Downing Street' approach? I wonder. How does any government – 'free', 'unfree', 'democratic', 'undemocratic', etc. – deal with what would no doubt be perceived as a threat to its own legitimacy? I'd rather not guess, to be honest. My point is that the message imparted by the 'Occupy Castille' hashtag – which I now see everywhere on the Internet – is not in any shape of form akin to the 'Occupy Wall Street' campaign that so evidently inspired its creators. Nor does it reflect the actual aims and intentions of the people camping on the steps of Castille... whose demands are quite reasonable, as far as I can see. Taken literally, 'Occupy Castille' is a rallying cry to overthrow a legitimate, democratically- elected government. And yes, I know most people out there don't take it quite so literally; perhaps they'd be justified in accusing me of exaggeration. But I am beginning to suspect that some people really do mean it in that sense. There is, after all, a perfectly legitimate way to 'Occupy Castille', for those who wish to do so. It's called 'democracy'; and while our own electoral system may be complicated in the detail, on the surface it's fairly straightforward. If you want to occupy the seat of government... you form a party, contest an election, and win. I thought I'd just point that out, even if it applies only to the unfortunate choice of slogan (and not to the protest itself, which clearly doesn't fit the 'regime change' description), because it is becoming increasingly clear that some have forgotten this basic principle. And there is an irony to this: if there is one thing everyone has so far agreed upon, it is that Daphne's murder constituted a barbaric act of terrorism aimed at (apart from killing an innocent victim) stifling freedom of expression: one of the core principles of democracy. Surely, it cannot be rational to respond by undermining a second, equally pivotal core principle of democracy: election by popular vote. Love it or hate it, the present Evarist Bartolo If you want to 'Occupy Castille'... win an election Raphael Vassallo