Watch: English Should Be Main Language In All Maltese Schools, Peppi Azzopardi Proposes
No stranger to controversy, Peppi Azzopardi’s latest proposal for Malta’s education system is sure to ruffle a few feathers.
In an interview with Lovin Malta, the veteran broadcaster said that English, and not Maltese, should be the main language of education in schools across the country.
Azzopardi’s argument is that children who are exposed to English have a massive career head start over those who only speak Maltese and that this is creating a form of “discrimination”.
“Nowadays, even job interviews are carried out in English,” he said.
“You can be intelligent and well-suited for a job but if you don’t know English you will fail at the interview stage.”
He went on to warn that some Maltese students fail maths exams despite understanding mathematical concepts, simply because the paper is written in English. And while he is in favour of giving students a Maltese language option, he stressed that even such a strategy has its limits.
“What will happen if they want to go abroad? What will happen in private industries in Malta? Will you try and force them to interview you in Maltese? Many Maltese companies are international nowadays, and how can they employ someone who can’t answer an email because they only think in Maltese and don’t know how to respond in English.”
Azzopardi dismissed suggestions that this proposal is unpatriotic, arguing that true patriotism means providing everyone with the same opportunities to succeed in life.
“How fair is it that people who know English can rise to the top while the others can just stay waving a Maltese flag? It’s not right. If we want to be patriots, then we should all be patriots together by giving everyone a chance to succeed,” he said.
This is part of a long interview that Peppi Azzopardi gave to Lovin Malta that touched on several topics, from politics, judicial reforms and education to migration, LGBT+ rights and the prison.
Do you agree with Peppi Azzopardi’s proposal?
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