A. Background

Successive Governments in the past 10 years have built on existing measures to create and support a wide range of formal and non-formal learning opportunities for all age groups of civil society. Both major political parties have established institutes aimed at the continuing education of members. Major NGOs have developed their own package of non-formal and informal learning opportunities for particular categories of citizens at both central and community levels. Government itself is a major provider in the area of lifelong education both through its formal compulsory, post-secondary, vocational and tertiary education institutions as well as through other initiatives such as the Staff Development Organisation (SDO) and on-going adult focused T.V. programmes and courses run by the Department for Further Studies and Adult Education within the Division of Education. Other Government corporations and authorities as well as the private industrial sector have, through the years, established their own training centres contributing to staff development opportunities that have become a management success indicator.

Building on past experience, the 1998 Electoral Programme of the party in Government undertook to ensure that:

"Major efforts will be made in the field of adult education, with special emphasis on those who left school early. This will be incorporated into the concept of lifelong learning. Wider use will also be made of distance learning through radio, T.V., and computer" .

In its bid to accomplish this commitment, the Ministry of Education has, since 1998, embarked on a series of wide-ranging reforms in the education, culture and heritage sectors that have led to the following outcomes:

1. A national consultation process that led to (a) the publication in December 1999 of a new National Curriculum entitled Creating Our Future Together; the National Curriculum targets the 3 - 16 age group; (b) the setting up in January 2000 of a National Steering Committee on the Implementation of the National Curriculum that formulated a National Strategic Plan on the Implementation of the National Curriculum, (c) the formulation by 18 specialised working groups of 18 plans focusing on areas of the national curriculum; and (d) the setting up in March 2001 of a National Curriculum Council to lead the implementation of the Strategic Plan.
2. The setting up, through Legal Notice 135 of 2000, of the Institute for Child and Parent Learning Support (ICPLS) in order to effectively and efficiently aid the Division of Education to combat school failure and to support the continuing education of parents to enable them to nurture their children's growth and learning. The ICPLS has submitted a Grundtvig project on Parent Empowerment for Family Literacy for which EU funding is available.
3. The establishment in August 2000 of the Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology; (b) the establishment, through Legal Notice of 215 of 2000, of a Malta Council for Professional and Vocational Qualifications, (c) developments in the area of technology education at both primary and secondary levels of education including specialised teacher training; (d) the establishment of a number of Institutes under the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology. The Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology is currently developing a Literacy Support Unit targeting young post-secondary underachievers that would enable users to access courses at the Vocational College. Provision would include the facilitation of adult basic literacy, numeracy and communications skills.
4. The setting up of a Foundation for Educational Services that has incorporated within it the Institute for Child and Parent Learning Support (ICPLS). The Foundation will also further develop, on behalf of the Division of Education, services for children with special learning difficulties such as dyslexia and dyspraxia and embark on initiatives that will transform a number schools into community learning centres.
5. The establishment in January 2000 of a European Union Programmes Unit to ensure a co-ordinated management of such EU programmes as Leonardo II, Socrates II, Youth, and Culture 2000.
6. The setting up of the St. James Cavalier Centre for Creativity that offers a wide range of learning opportunities for all age groups in the multi-disciplinary art forms. The Centre is making a name for itself for its emphasis on provision of ongoing opportunities for persons with particular social, emotional, intellectual and physical needs.
7. The decision by the Minister of Education to focus on the development of a national Strategic Plan on lifelong learning as a natural progression of the long process of participatory stakeholder consultations that led to the formulation, publication and dissemination of a Strategic Plan on the Implementation of the National Curriculum.
8. The setting up of a Trade School Reform Expert Group that led to a reform in the area of technology education in Malta - a subject that as from this year will be taught to both primary and secondary students.
9. The plan formulated by the Working Group on Schools as Community Learning Centres which was submitted in May 2000 to the National Steering Committee on the Implementation of the National Curriculum.
10. The establishment, in May 2001, of a Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools (FTS) that will be responsible both for the construction, refurbishment, and maintenance of schools as well as for the development and application of alternative sources of financement. FTS will be involved in the physical alterations of schools to accommodate adult learning activities through the schools as community learning centres initiative.
11. Decentralising the management of public libraries to the Local Councils.