Media education in church schools in Malta

Abstract

During a discussion I had with a class of 15 year old girls about the use they make of t.v. I found that in spite of the fact that they were preparing for the G.C.E. examination they watch approximately an average of 2.5 hours a day. (This is a bit lower than the national average which according to a study made by GALLUP LTD. in 1984 is 2.64 hours daily.) This amounts to 38 days a year. We tried to compare this with the time students spend at school. They have 175 school days a year with 5 hours every day which gives a total of 36 days a year. Both the school administrators and the students were greatly surprised with the result. This little incident helped me a lot in my meetings with different heads of schools while discussing with them the need of introducing media education in their schools.