The educational project will cover 25 thematic activities, involving students from kindergarten to post-secondary level. Students will tackle history, maths, Maltese grammar and literature, physical activity and drama. Some HM curators will deliver outreach programmes in schools including didactic resources and interactive workbooks.

“We hope that this multidisciplinary approach will show students and parents that museums are inclusive, accessible to everyone, and so much more than just historical sites,” said Mario Cutajar, Heritage Malta’s executive director.

“Following this summer’s successful programme, creating a new educational programme for the scholastic year was a natural continuation of our educational goals,” said Frank Fabri, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry for Education and Employment, while attending the launch.

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The Ministry of Education has awarded Melita with a contract to connect all government-owned education institutions with dedicated fibre as part of a managed network. Melita expects the upgrade — covering more than 100 institutions — to future-proof Malta’s public schools, enabling them to leverage current and new digital technologies by removing bottlenecks associated with bandwidth, according to a press statement sent to Business Malta.

The contract award follows a public call to telecommunications operators issued last year which was won by Melita. More than half the schools will be connected as from the beginning of 2019-2020 academic year, with the rest of the schools being enabled by January 2020.

Melita CEO Mr Rösch tagged the day as an important one for Melita for being chosen as the service provider for supporting more than a hundred schools. “It is not only an investment in the infrastructure but also an investment in the future of the country,” Mr Rösch said.

“This project is important for Melita, not because of its scale but most importantly because of the impact, it will have on our children’s education. The new network will, in fact, allow the technology team within the Ministry of Education to manage and deliver services to all sites seamlessly and more efficiently, helping to make both teaching and learning more engaging and rewarding. As a forward-looking organisation which takes inspiration from the needs of our customers to invest in the right infrastructure to connect them to the services they need, being awarded this contract is very satisfying,” Mr Rösch added.

“As a small island in the big world, connectivity has always been crucial,” education minister Evarist Bartolo said. The minister also elaborated on the fact that traditionally speaking, maritime and aerospace connectivity has been important for Malta, being an island. However, as today sees immense digitalisation activities, internet connectivity is becoming more important than ever.

The minister also said that his ministry looks forward to further collaboration with Melita to enhance connectivity for both education and employment.

EDITORIAL NOTE: Business Malta’s morning report from the event has been updated with further details carried by the official press release issued in the afternoon. The cover picture of the article has also been changed to a photo of the Melita CEO speaking at the event.

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The event was conceptualised by the Department of Accounting and Business Studies within the Directorate for Learning and Assessment Programmes (DLAP) at the Ministry for Education and Employment (MEDE) and supported by HSBC Malta Foundation as part of its Future Skills programme.

Malta ranks in the lower end among the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries in terms of adults making money decisions in their household by themselves or together with others in the household, the press statement says.

The school quiz was designed to distinguish between needs and wants, budgeting, earning, spending and saving money, investments, insurance, banking services, and even donations.

“Considering that this was a first-of-its-kind quiz in Malta and Gozo, the enthusiasm shown by schools was remarkable and encourages us to continue creating more financial literacy-related events in future. The high participation also demonstrated that financial literacy needs to be more prominently discussed in the imagination of the public,” said Joanne Zammit, Education Officer for Accounting and Business Studies at DLAP.

More questions focused on students’ responsibility, awareness and knowledge when buying online, fixed and variable costs, and debt. The quiz was online, allowing students to use tablets and their mobile phones to answer the questions, aimed at increasing digital literacy as well. The Directorate for Digital Literacy and Transversal Skills provided the tablets and guided students on how to use the quiz app.

During the event, officials from the government’s financial capability strategy (2017-2019), Ġemma, and from HSBC also held presentations. MEDE Permanent Secretary Dr Frank Fabri handed the prizes and certificates.

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With the help of these Blockcerts, academic credentials such as diplomas, school leaving certificates, and transcripts will be issued to Maltese students in an internationally portable, instantly verifiable digital format, the statement says. Educational institutions will also continue to receive official accreditation certificates on the blockchain for instant verification of status.

Current progress comes after MEDE and three educational institutions: the Malta College of Arts Science and Technology (MCAST), the Institute of Tourism Studies (ITS), and the National Commission for Further and Higher Education (NCFHE) completed a national pilot of Blockcerts blockchain credentials.

“In 2017, we said Malta should become ‘the blockchain island’. And it has. Malta is leading its peers when it comes to emerging technologies and digital innovation,” Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said during his address when the progress was announced.

The Ministry for Education partnered with Learning Machine in 2017 to launch a pilot project where academic credentials were issued using blockchain as a secure anchor of trust. Among other recipients of this pilot project, students at ITS and MCAST were presented their credentials on blockchain during their respective graduation ceremonies, the DOI statement reminds.

“What we are doing today is another small step in fulfilling the challenge set to us by our prime minister to be amongst the first in Europe but the world. But in order to do that, we need economic growth, social justice, education, and technology to be able to have practical visions where we set ourselves ambitious objectives and work hard to meet them,” said Minister for Education and Employment Evarist Bartolo.

Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation Silvio Schembri said that the time is ripe to translate what was garnered from this pilot project onto a national level. “Our future generations will be the fortunate beneficiaries of today’s momentous signing,” the finance minister said.

Minister Schembri added that as of October 2019 new specialised Master courses will open focusing on Blockchain and DLT in Business and Finance, Law and Regulation, and Information and Communication Technology.

The Ministry for Education and Employment Permanent Secretary Francis Fabri and Learning Machine Technologies President and Chief Operation Officer Dan Hughes sealed the agreement. Parliamentary Secretary for Youth, Sport and Voluntary Organisations Clifton Grima were also present during the press conference.

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Agribusiness and four other vocational subjects were added to the secondary school curriculum in the 2015-2016 academic year, for both state and non-state (church and independent, respectively) institutions. The subjects are optional for students from From 3 to Form 5, and are accrited as SEC qualifications by the Matriculation and Secondary Education Certificate (MATSEC) Examinations Board.

Currently 74 students are enrolled in studying SEC Agribusinesses, the DOI press statement says. Under the recently signed agreement, all students in Forms 3, 4 and 5 studying SEC and SEAC Agribusiness will have the opportunity to carry out the practical tasks of the agribusiness syllabus at the field/farm premises. The current partnership is scheduled to be launched as of the start of the 2019-2020 academic year, according to the press statement.

Minister for Education and Employment Evarist Bartolo believes Malta has to make efforts in attracting more of the youth to the agriculture industry, in order to enhance the sustainable development of the archipelago. The current programme is based on work-integrated learning and exposes students to practical knowledge for the young age, while also improves their intellectual abilities and makes them more employable, the press statement says. Parliament Secretary Clifton Grima adds that the initiative provides additional resources to the country’s educational system.

“Today, after reaching an agreement with the hotel industry and tying up the hospitality curriculum with the industry, we are celebrating another step in the right direction, that of reaching an agreement with the industry of agribusiness,” says Permanent Secretary Frank Fabri. “Through ‘My Journey’, there will be parity of esteem between all subjects and all programmes will be inclusive and equitable,” Mr Fabri adds.

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