The changing role of education in Malta

Abstract

Education and economy are directly fused, for the relation between them means, that in a planned economy, the out-put of skilled people must be consciously geared to the economic and social priorities of the society. It is only recently that Malta has become more aware of the need for planning in education. This was mainly brought about by Malta becoming entirely independant of the British Military Services. The latter has been the main means of employment, so there had to be planning in advance to meet projected economic and social requirements. In order to meet with this change, future man-power demands are being met through industrialization, tourism and agriculture, on each of which I have included a brief analysis. The last chapters are dedicated to education which has to be more flexible in its training for the future. In the additional chapter, I give a resume of the student-worker scheme. I have tried to show how important education has become in the public budget, and, that it should be geared to the needs of the country if this investment in human capital is not wasted.