Let us aim high!

What comes after good health? A good education. Without a good grasp on education, we will lag behind several countries.
We will remain unable to make the best of our opportunities – not just within the EU, but globally.
Netting foreign direct investments is important. But who will man the factories and the organisations turning out goods and services that rely on modern technology, if so many of our children continue to leave school unable to get a proper grip on basic subjects like reading, writing and maths? Who wants this country to return to low-paid wages and producing shoddy products Third World countries produce for cheap? We must address the skills mismatch problem.
Truth be told, we have a serious problem with education as a whole. It’s refreshing to hear Education Minister Evarist Bartolo acknowledge this, because the first step to finding a solution is admitting that there is a problem. Credit must also go to education institutions like MCAST, which is concentrating on developing vocational training for those young people whose ambitions are not directing them towards academics and the University. But we have to go back to basics. That is where the problem lies.
What’s the use of being an EU member state when, according to one EU report, Malta nets, dismally, the highest number of early school leavers? You know what that means? It means that when investors are looking for places to set up high end and middle range, profit making industries and services  – Gaming, IT, financial services – they will look at the other 27 EU member states before considering Malta.
The government talks about turning Malta into a centre of excellence. This is a superb ambition. But this is only achievable if we address the fact that as many as 40% of our students are quitting the educational system far too early. This is dramatic. It should ring alarm bells with us all. The EU wants that figure to come down to 10%.
Our educational statistics make bad reading at almost every juncture. They make for an awful commentary on how our educational system has been led. Less than 20% of those of working age have an intermediate level of education. Worse still, far too many students are leaving school unable to read or write. Isn’t this shameful?
If our country is to be competitive, our education system must include a number of skills which have long been underestimated or completely ignored. These included basic fundamental skills such as literacy, numeracy and technology, as well as, people-related skills like communications, customer care, interpersonal and team working abilities: conceptual skills that include problem solving, organisational and creative skills. This is not asking for the world. It’s just asking for students to have the minimum skills on which they can build their education further and man a modern economy.
I am all for building new schools. I am all for making more money available for refurbishing schools and colleges. But we seem to have the same problem as with Mater Dei. We build cathedrals, but fail to recruit the right number of ‘priests’ to man it effectively. This government is committed to raising a generation of properly educated citizens that can hold their own in a European Union that must become more competitive. The previous administration used to focus  on spending more money on schools and less on education. Clearly, we were not following the direction provided by the European Union. Other member states are, but were not doing things right. I want investors to bring to Malta a highly profitable industry – whether it’s goods or services – in which most of our people can be engaged – not just a few – and I want them to find the right skills in the job market.    
The benefit of being a member state of the European Union is that one can draw strength from being part of such a huge construct. One of the reasons I want to be part of an effective Labour Party team of European Parliamentarians is this: I want my country to seriously improve its educational system. I want our people to be as educated as others living in other EU member states (if not more). I would like to promote a programme for student exchange for the very young – primary and secondary students – so that, from early days, these children are given a taste of other cultures, other traditions and civilizations. I would like to see the insular mentality, so characteristic of islanders, to be diluted into a healthy blend of ‘Europeanism’.
I would like to cultivate a hunger for learning and knowledge in children at an early age.
This can only be done by careful planning of an all-inclusive curriculum, which not only addresses reading and writing effectively, but goes beyond – into culture and the arts.
Unfortunately, we are still far away from this goal because we are still fire-fighting illiteracy – and this is sad indeed. We can and must get our government to turn our educational system round to make our country a better fighting chance – and one of the most seriously competitive in the EU. We should be ambitious achievers. We should aim high. Our country, our citizens, deserve it.
As an MEP, I can, and I will make this an uppermost goal.

Marlene Mizzi is a member of the European Parliament.

www.mizzimarlene.com
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