Labour approves ‘cleaner air’ and ‘success in education’ motions at congress

The Labour congress this evening approved two motions: one committing the party to 'Cleaner Air for Our Children' while the second underscored the party's commitment to 'More Youth Studying Successfully'.

Discussed in two separate events, the participants in today's congress highlighted the dangers posed by a lack of concrete and decisive action in the face of urgent problems such as water conservation, and air quality.

During the debate dealing with the environment, environmental expert Alan Pulis, insisted that the economy needs to be better linked to the environment. "One cannot talk about one without the other. The economy is what it is thanks to the resources afforded to it by the environment."

He said that one of the national priorities should be the expansion of the green economy as well as the improvement of the energy generation sector, especially with regards to air quality. "We have a crisis in this regard, not only with regards to the infrastructure, which needs modernization, but also our dependence on oil, and other fossil fuels."

Pulis said that aside from modernizing our outdated infrastructure, Malta needs to shift further towards a 'low-carbon' society which depends less and less on oil. Pulis added that while this might not be completely possible in the coming years, steps could start being made, such as moving from oil-dependency to gas-dependency.

He also warned that Malta is facing a crisis with regards to water generation. "Over the years, we have taken water for granted as a common good, used by all without being the responsibility of nobody" Pulis said. He said that successive administrations allowed the unrestricted and regulated extraction of water, and emphasised that it is an issue that requires "immediate attention".

Regarding waste, Pulis also called for more investment in the infrastructure governing waste management. "Waste is a source of energy. It is a resource," he said, adding that it could be used towards Malta's 'renewable energy' target.

Dr Jason Bonnici, a doctor, spoke of the environment of environmental factors that adversely affect population health and said that Malta's air quality consistently fails to make the grade in international testing due to the presence of fine dust and the volume of nitrogen dioxide in the air, which is primarily produced by car engines and power station emissions.

He added that traffic is particularly worrying as local studies found that children living along arterial roads are far likelier to develop health issues such as respiratory difficulty and even asthma.

 "Since then, things have gotten worse as there are today 312,000 vehicles for Malta's 420,000 inhabitants. If we are to address this problem, we need to take concrete action and move from a personal transportation approach to a public transportation approach," he warned.

In his own address, Professor Paul Pace spoke of the importance of sustainable development across environmental, social, and economic sectors. He said that the environment should not be perceived as something "external" but insisted that environmental improvement equates to improving our own qualify of life.

"We are talking about our existence. There is no going around that," Pace insisted, and warned that increased traffic or waste generation, for example, is caused by human activity and is increased by bad decisions by decision-makers.

"We often talk of recycling, but we should be actually opting for recycling as a last resort," Pace said, insisting on the importance of reducing or reusing waste to begin with.

"When discussing the environment, we cannot keep laboring under the impression that it is up to the government to take action. We must all take actions for our sins. If I am managing a family, or a business, or a local council, I have my own decisions to make. And environmental improvement comes down to all our decisions," he insisted.

During a brief address, Water expert Marco Cremona called for the environmental affairs portfolio to be removed from a ministerial portfolio, and be placed instead beneath the direct responsibility of parliament. "Environmental affairs are too important to be allowed to be subject to political whims," Cremona insisted.

He added that that one cannot give the impression that "technology solves everything" and insisted that what is more important is that "we change attitudes. This can be achieved through education and enforcement."

He said that Malta's water resources as "out of sight, forgotten, and abused by everyone." He insisted that Malta is worse off than other countries in terms of the volume of water available per capita, "including desert countries like Libya."

During the dialogue themed on education,, Labour Party President Dr Stefan Zrinzo insisted that education is the foundation of a democratic and participative society. "Education shouldn't be perceived simply as students prepared for exams, but we need to go beyond," he said.

He said that Malta needs to care and cultivate its human resource, by investing more resources in a better way that matches the priorities of our educational system. He said that celebrating and recognizing success is healthy, "But using success to conceal failure is a serious mistake," Zrinzo said.

He said that a new government needs to invest and watch out against early school leavers. "We need to understand why we have a number of children who are regularly avoiding attending school." He said that by strengthening educational shortcomings, poverty can once again be tackled in those areas which are the worst-performers in this regard.

In said that recently-published figures regarding illiteracy rates are "unacceptable", adding that this means that many people are automatically unable to use certain basic services and other tools like IT and the internet.

During his address, FORUM president John Bencini cited the regular successes achieved by Finland's educational system in PISA evaluative quality checks, which examined educational systems of many countries around the world.

He said that in 2009 Malta ranked 25^th among European Countries, followed only by Bulgaria and Romania. "Whatever I, the government, the Minster, or the Opposition, say, this  official result stands for itself as an impartial evaluation handed down by an international body," Bencini said.

He said that in Finland, teachers enjoy regular and quality support from educational authorities throughout their career, as well as the time and opportunity to collaborate with colleagues. "Ask local teachers, and they'll probably tell you they barely have time to even se e their colleagues."

He also said that Finnish teachers are encouraged to be creative and innovative, and thus enjoy a high moral boost. "They are respected and values," Bencini insisted, adding that the student-to-teacher ratio is as low as 1-to-10- or 1-to-11, while the technology is "state of the art."

Bencini also reiterated that school hours do not need to be longer, pointing to observations by PISA that Finland's children spend the least amount of hours in the class room among those countries evaluated.

Bencini hit out at the manner in which decisions regarding the educational sector are taken by "experts, some of which never stepped foot inside a class room', and teachers who work with students everyday are not consulted or ignored.

"If we don't take stock and decide that we want to turn things around, the situation will remain unchanged for the next 25 years, and countries like Bulgaria and Romania will overtake us," Bencini warned.

Brain Vassallo, a teacher, referred to how a recent review found that 6% of Maltese students come from foreign cultures, and said that the lack of resources or assistance means that teachers and school heads are unable to cater for them.

School head Alfred Grixti criticized the manner in which the government attempted to rush through several reforms, so much so that it created a "reform fatigue" and did not allow teachers to keep up. He also said that while it is good that the government opens a new school every year, "almost all new schools, with one exception which fell in the minister's own constituency" were opened in old buildings.

He also insisted that Malta's educational system did not keep up with the country's social changes, especially with regards to the change within the family. Grixti also claimed that the Education Ministry discriminates between schools in the North and the South: "We accommodate in the North while we dictate in the South," he said.

Manuel Montebello spoke of trade schools and the successes that Maltese students achieved after attending them and allowed them to prosper despite facing difficulties in mainstream educational channels.

He said that many subjects taught within trade schools have today been lost, such as traditional carpentry. He said the time has come to reconsider opening up vocational schools, possibly under the ambit of a pilot project. He said that despite its merits, MCAST (as a post-secondary institution) was failing to cater for those children aged between 13 and 16.

Wilfred Buttigieg called for the establishment of a national congress which gathers teachers and other education stakeholders to discuss problems and collectively reach a way forward.

Maria Camilleri appealed to the Labour Party to issue "a clear message that the help that is being given to independent schools keeps on being provided, and that those children facing learning difficulties receive assistance without discrimination, as do children in public schools."

Julian Tabone, a primary school teacher, called for a campaign to restore respect within the teaching profession given how this has fallen in recent years.

Daniel Spiteri, secondary school teacher with a public school, emphasised that teachers are not "owners of the reforms being made" and echoed other statements that similarly said that government is rushing through reforms too fast for teachers to keep up.