Guest Post: The MEA, Our Education And Our Democracy
About a week before the general election, the Malta Employer’s Association told political parties to change the way the University of Malta functions, and in doing so made blatant what they and the rest of the capitalist class think of the education system.
In their “Memorandum to Political Parties”, they urged “channelling students into career-oriented disciplines” and “weaning students away from what are considered ‘soft options’ in their studies”.
Their complete disregard for the importance of the humanities and the arts has shown that their idea of what the purpose of the education system should be, was shared with the 1700s industrialists: to churn out workers that they can profit off.
The election debate that was held at the University of Malta was quite possibly one of the most embarrassing and shameful events to have taken place at Malta’s highest educational institution.
An audience that should have posed the future leaders of our country with harsh, hard-hitting questions, and struck them with fear knowing that their values and intentions would be criticised by some of the country’s most educated, were instead met with schoolyard chants. This debate showed a severe lack of critical thinking from the audience members and it alone should make us realise the important place of the humanities and the arts in our education system.
It is all well and good to be a skilled worker with a successful career but to have a successful democracy, the citizens must be skilled critics. The humanities and the arts give us the tools and the medium for us to look at the world we live in, the system that governs it, and the people that lead it, and with logical reasoning, poke holes in their inaccuracies, lies and fallacies and show them, whether mistakenly or maliciously, how they are failing to make the world progress towards equality and justice for all.
However, the MEA (and all those that are happy with the system as is) know this, which is most likely another reason why they try to negate its importance. They know that more often than not, the humanities and arts will criticise them, and perhaps lead to the conclusion that their authority or the system they profit off, need to go.
The MEA poorly tried to hide their intentions stating that “This (proposal) will also assist Malta in addressing gender stereotyping in occupational choices as a means to reduce the gender pay gap”. While this might seem noble, it is downright laughable when presented with the fact that the MEA vehemently objected when the Ministry for Equality tried to pass their Human Rights and Equality Bill. A bill that would have actually reduced gender equality in the workplace.
The University of Malta’s duty as the highest educational institution should be educating for the sake of educating. While of course, it is definitely important to gain an education and skills that will benefit society, society is not the MEA, and our society is suffering while they continue to prosper.
There is a complete lack of encouragement to think critically in our education system. Often the emphasis is not put on truly understanding a concept, but understanding the concept just enough to pass the exam.
I completely agree with the academics studying and teaching at the University of Malta that this proposal must be rejected by the government. Moreover, I think there is an urgent need for the encouragement of the humanities and the arts and also their inclusion in non-humanities subjects, with the purpose of instilling the skill of critical thought, a skill we desperately need.
Engineers and scientists are fundamental to the functioning of our society and the progression of the human race; however, their science can only be useful if their research is benefitting not only those that will throw the most money at them but humanity and the world as a whole.
The humanities and the arts are of the utmost importance in providing us with the independence of not having to rely on those in the position of authority for what is right or wrong, but being able to reason it out by ourselves. The “hard sciences” and the “soft sciences” are intertwined and inseparable and are both crucially important to the functioning of our society.
It is only once every citizen in our society can think critically and be able to understand their relationship with the world around them, that we can truly achieve a successful democracy.
Gabriel Apap is a member of Moviment Graffitti
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Do you agree?