No doubt the compilers of the book on Malta’s educational system and the targets set by the EU’s Lisbon strategy, The Lisbon Objectives and Maltese education provision, thought the publication would be a good idea. Scholarly presentations about aspects of local education were given at a conference held last year, and then reproduced in a well packaged format. Only, the effort seems to totally ignore the reality.

On most relevant targets within the Lisbon strategy, we come well down the list, if not bottom, among the EU’s member states. Thus, Malta is in bottom place regarding programmes to improve the skills of young people aged between 20 and 24 who have finished secondary education. We are in bottom place in the league of countries whose young people aged between 20 and 24 have completed higher secondary studies. And, contrary to Lisbon’s targets, the number of students graduating in science is declining.

It is difficult to understand how such a book comes to be produced by the Education Ministry – without at least some form of critical back-up – at a time when we need to reflect deeply, and in a genuine way, about the failure that benchmarking on the Lisbon gauge renders so evident.

Staged affairs

Similarly, one could take stock of a recent event at Castille, that was projected as a ground-breaking exercise by the powers-that-be. Prime Minister Gonzi, we were told, would, alongside his ministers, meet members of the public and discuss with them issues that they would raise. The occasion would provide an opportunity for people, by airing their grievances, to follow the PM’s agenda and understand what lies in the government’s mind.

The impression I got about this activity was gleaned from TV news shots of it, plus press reports. At least on the basis of the first edition of this sitcom, it appeared as a show. The public assembled in Castille’s upper