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Education and Development in Malta

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Education and Development in Malta ~ .. rY ' "'o ~ c..x-v.)" pow CHAPTER 3 !1()d.k ~ KJ ~ uif ~' UN D fJ ~ Education and development in Malta Introduction result is a marked pay-off in terms of in­ creased production, yielding greater national Human capital As we have argued earlier, education wealth, corporate profits and individual is one among a number of features of wages. theory, tends to a social formation that can contribute For the purpose of this report it is crucial look at people as to human development. The UNDP ar­ to understand the distinction between views a means to an ticulates the latter in terms of creating of education and development promoted 'an enabling environment for people to by the United Nations Development Pro­ end, ... enjoy long, healthy and creative lives', wid­ gramme on the one hand, and those of the It treats education ening'~people's choices and increasing the World Bank (to mention only one of the as an industry level of their achieved well-being. To­ more important agencies) on the other. This gether with health care, political freedom, understanding is particularly important given which generates guaranteed human rights and self-respect, the fact that, irrespective of the differing the desired education figures highly as a contributing political views of various governments, hu­ amounts of element to the fulfilment of these aspira­ man capital theory approaches have been tions. very influential in Malta from the post-war functional The UNDP significantly distances itself from period to the present day. This is evident manpower other approaches that purport to explain in the various development plans that closely the linkage between education and human link education with economic progress. The development. The most notable of these change in name from Ministry of Educa­ approaches is the human capital theory, tion, Culture and Environment to Ministry which was pioneered in the post-war pe­ of Education and Human Resources after riod by a number of economists such as the 1992 General Elections merely serves to Nobel prize-winner TW Schultz, Peter highlight and make more explicit the as­ Drucker and BA Weisbrod. For a long sumed link between education and the period of time, this approach was economy, where the former is considered promoted by such development agencies to be a key partner in sustaining, even as the World Bank. Human capital theory, leading the latter by the best development or theories of human resource develop­ of human potential. The change in no­ ment as it is noV{ increasingly referred to, menclature for the portfolio represents a tends to look at people as a means to an formal marriage between education and end, that is in terms of their capacity to development, a union which had in fact increase production. It treats education as been consummated much earlier as Malta an industry which generates the desired strove to become not only politically, but amounts of functional manpower. Conse­ also economically self-reliant. The influ­ quently, the development of educated and ence of Thomas Balogh in the promotion skilled people, their number, quality of human capital theory in Malta and other and utilisation, is considered to be the British colonies and several nations on the most significant index of the wealth-pro­ African continent needs to be underlined in duction capacity of a country. The implica­ this context. tions of this is that education will produce The different approach to education and individuals with an increased general and development promoted by the UNDP is job-specific knowledge which they subse­ useful because it helps one distinguish be­ quently can apply in an expanding economy, tween quantitative and qualitative issues in both to better utilise new technical devel­ educational provision. It leads the basic opments and to generate innovations. The question as to the manner in which educa- 20 Iv1ALTA HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT tional expansion increased the well-being field of educational development and policy­ of citizens. Of course, the quantitative making is steeped in quantitative rather than dimension of the question is rather more qualitative considerations, a point that has easily addressed, given that 'all' it requires been made by the Minister of Education is a set of numeric parameters to measure and Human Resources Consultative Body's the trends and direction in the delivery of report Tomorrow's Schools: Developing Ef­ the service. The qualitative dimension, in­ fective Learning Cultures. dexed by the woolly phrase 'well-being of people', is much more subjective and less Quantitative Expansion amenable to measurement. This does not of Educational Provision make it in any way less important. Indeed, the treatment of people as 'human capital', When compared with the expansion of Indeed, the as units that contribute to production, ob­ mass educational provision at the primary, fuscates and mystifies the relationship that secondary and tertiary levels in Europe and treatment of exists between education and production the United States, Malta's educational devel­ people as (human on the one hand, and domination and ex­ opment is characterised by retarded growth. capital', ... ploitation on the other. Indeed, research The Compulsory Education Ordinance, mak­ has tended to show that rather than lead­ ing primary education obligatory for chil­ obfuscates and ing to human well-being, educati~:.m sys­ dren between six and fourteen years, was mystifies the tems are directly involved in selecting and only passed in 1946, a full century after relationship that stratifying people - often on criteria that mass elementary education had been made have more to do with class, race, and available on the Continent. Secondary edu­ exists between gender than 'objective' intellectual ability - cation for all came even later, that is, in education and and then channelling particular categories 1970. Tertiary education - which in Malta is production on the of students towards specific locations in a tantamount to university education, and which segmented labour market. While some of dates back four centuries - has only recently one hand, and these segments are characterised by work offered wider access, with the number of domination and conditions and remuneration that lead to students leaping from 1,337 in 1983 to over exploitation on the healthy, creative life-styles, others are not. 6,200 in 1995 (Table 3.2). Such tardiness in Schools are, thus, directly involved in the quantitative development of educational serv­ other 'cooling out' of groups of students who are ices can be accounted for in terms of a thus channelled towards the less lucrative number of factors. Chief among these fac­ and fulfilling sectors in the economy. There tors is the colonial status of the Islands, the are those who claim that education systems reactionary influence of the anti-reform party are predicated on a logic of success for of the 1880s, whose adherents saw educa­ some, and failure for others. For, if an tion as a threat to their cultural and class educator's dream that all students success­ interests, and the fear of an equally con­ fully complete a course of study were to servative church which feared that educa­ come true, how would society be able to tion provision under British rule would lead select, park and store all these students in to Protestant proselytism. The industrial un­ the job hierarchy? This explains why a derdevelopment and the slow pace of state number of Maltese educational sociologists formation under colonial government meant in the post-war period have consistently that effective movements in favour of mass argued that education systems should be education were generally weak or absent. considered systems of violence rather more Malta's educational history is rather marked than of development. more by the rhetorical appeals for the school­ This report gives an overview of both ing of society on the part of local and the quantitative and qualitative growth in visiting Commissioners and the enlightened education proviSion, raises issues and draw activities by such visionaries as Manwel conclusions related to the problematic rela­ Dimech and Dun Gorg Preca, than by steady tionship between both. This is particularly and planned development. im portant not. only in tenns of the exercise Despite such belated development, in of providing the education component of quantitative terms, local educational provi­ the human development index, but also sion, is ahead of that prevailing in develop­ because current official discourse in the ing countries and, in most cases, compares MALTA HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 21 quite favourably with small island states longer. The pre-primary sector, which since that have a similarly peripheral, intermediately 1977 started catering for four year-old, - developed economy. At various points this and extended for three year-old in 1988 - report will draw comparisons with Cyprus, now services 95% and 90% of each respec­ tive age group. This is ahead of similar facilities in Mediterranea n EU member states, TABLE 3. 1 Post-Secondary Education between 1970-1990 namely Greece, Spain and Portugal, and better than Denmark, Germany and the UK, Date Students which school up to 75% of their four year­ old. Maltese students are increasingly par­ 1969-70 2,746 ticipating in post-secondary and tertiary edu­ 1974-75 3,167 In the last two 1979-80 2,602 cation. Sixty per cent of each age cohort 1984-85 3 ,487 are in the former sector, compared to 80% and a half 1989-90 3,751 of young people in EU member states who decades, obtain an upper secondary school-leaving Sources: Report s of the Working 01 Government Department considerable and Education Statistics 01 the respective years. certificate. Fifteen per cent of each age cohort of Maltese students, or 8.2% of all progress in Maltese students and pupils (excluding those educational Fiji and _ Barbados, which like Malta are in pre-school establishments) go to Univer­ provision has been characterized by a low manufacturing ca­ sity.
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