During a Cabinet Meeting that was taking place in Dingli Secondary School, George was invited to address the Maltese Prime Minister, Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries.
After being approached by the Head of School, George started working on points they wanted to highlight in their speech. After some back and forth with the points, George, together with the Head of School finalised the points they wanted to share with the Maltese Cabinet.
On the 11th of October 2022, Prime Minister Robert Abela toured the school, seeing hands-on (VET) classes and speaking to students. After his tour of the school was finished, the Prime Minister was brought up to the Hall of SNC Dingli Secondary, which was turned into a temporary Conference Room. After an opening speech by the Prime Minister, who was sat directly opposite of George, the 8 guests started delivering their speeches.
George was the 2nd to deliver their speech. Their speech focused on how the Maltese Education System prepared George for life after Secondary School, the Importance of Extra-Curricular activities and how Current Affairs should be covered in school. They also mentioned the importance of being able to analyse politics from a non-partisan lens, and how to view what’s happening around you from an informed perspective.
After George delivered their speech, the room applauded George’s Speech, and the Prime Minister himself gave a thumbs up to George. After the rest of the speakers concluded their speech, the Prime Minister and Minister for Education delived a speech. In this speech, George’s points were brought up by the Prime Minister, and they were even called a potential future leader of the country.
Being featured on TVM News (National Broadcaster), ONE News and Pjazza, amongst other programmes who mentioned George’s speech, this was definitely a success. An unexpected thing that happened after the speech was that George was praised on Pjazza by Karl Stagno Navarra and the Minister of Social Policy and Children’s Rights, for the professional way they handled their speech, and being prominently featured on ONE News. George’s speech was mentioned in a bunch of Maltese newspapers, including the Times of Malta, Malta Today and the Malta Independent.
Speech
Translated from Maltese to English
Honourable Prime Minister, Honourable Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries, I am George Vella, a 15 year old teenager currently in my last year of Secondary School.
As a Year 11 student, you can say I’m already tired of hearing about O-Levels and how short this scholastic year is. I know that these are important things to mention, but how did my educational journey really prepare me for life after the end of this scholastic year? I have learned the basics from school, but I’m not ashamed to say that I wish I could’ve learned other things from school.
Honestly speaking, I wish that skills such as learning how to vote, learning how Maltese Tax works, what changes we’ll face as teenagers, and how to have an impartial view on politics were given more importance. Unfortunately in most subjects, we are taught how to do well in exams rather than how we can apply the subject in our lives. We need to implement a way in which skills learned in school can be applied to our day-to-day life, otherwise we wouldn’t have any use for what we learned.
In my opinion, extra-curricular activities are really important, and schools should keep encouraging students to participate in opportunities that interest them. Let us remember that these kinds of activities help us students to be able to learn outside the confines of the school’s educational system.
Whilst school should focus on traditional teaching, there should be much more focus on current affairs. When the Russian Invasion of Ukraine started last February (2022), the vast majority of students had no idea on what led to this invasion, and what was the geopolitical scene at that time. I’d like to suggest that amongst the subjects we’re taught, we also learn how to look around, and analyse what happens on a National, European and International scale.
Yet another point I’d like to mention is the fact that we should learn that even if you disagree with someone on certain topics/ideas, there is no need to verbally assault them, but we should learn to discuss matters in a civil way, if we want a respectful future for our country.
On a personal note, I’d like to thank the teachers that really believe in their students. These kinds of teachers really help us students, especially those that always push us to be able to reach our full potential especially in education.
From the removal of Formal Uniforms, to the introduction of Continuous Assessments, the scholastic system has changed quite a lot from when I started school. All this change, especially until teachers and students got used to it, usually led to quite some confusion. The fact that there were years in which we had no idea on what the exam paper will be about, until the sample paper was published was quite a bad experience, and I wish that no one will have to live through that.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, teenagers approximately my age lost a lot of opportunities, including the Work Experience programme. I hope that during the pandemic, these opportunities were improved, and I wish that similar opportunities that could work even in extraordinary circumstances were planned.
To close my statment, I’d like to mention that I believe that not just Malta needs a drastic reform in Education. Former President of the United States Barack Obama and Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair believe that their respective countries also need a deep reform, and still advocate for it to this very day. However I believe that if we understand the importance of education, especially in Primary, Middle and Secondary schools, change will happen automatically.
Minħabba l-COVID, żgħażagħ li għandhom żmien bejn wieħed u ieħor daqsi tlifna bosta opportunitajiet, inkluża l-Work Experience. Nispera li dan il-ħin ittieħed biex tejjibna dawn l-opportunitajiet, u nixtieq li ġew ppjanati opportuniatjiet simili li jistgħu jaħdmu anke f’ċirkostanzi straordinarji.
Biex ngħalaq nixtieq ngħid li jien nemmen li mhux Malta biss għandna bżonn riforma radikali fl-edukazzjoni. L-Eks President tal-Istati Uniti Barack Obama u l-Eks Prim Ministru tar-Renju Unit Tony Blair jemmnu li f’pajjiżhom ukoll hemm bżonn bidla radikali fl-edukazzjoni, u għadhom isemmgħu leħinhom fuq dan is-suġġett sal-ġurnata tal-lum. Iżda nemmen li jekk nifmhu l-importanza tal-edukazzjoni, speċjalment fl-Iskejjel Primarji, Medji u Sekondarji, Il-bidla waħedha għandha tiġi.
Grazzi
