Kindergarten schools in the Maltese Islands : provisions and prospects

Abstract

Kindergartens know their origin in Germany in 1842 when Fredrich Froebel established the first kindergarten. Since then, kindergarten classes flourished all over the world, including Malta. Our thesis is an overview of the situation of Maltese state kindergartens, which came into existence in our twentieth century, exactly in October, 1975. The first chapter looks at three aspects of local kindergartens.: planning, resourcing and staffing. Our point of departure focuses briefly on the origins of pre-primary/infant education which lead the way to the history of infant education/ schools in Malta, again viewed in the light of the same three aspects: planning (which is elaborated) resourcing and staffing. Infant schools developed into the kindergarten scheme operating as from October, 1975. We take a look at the opening of these centres and investigate how such a reform was carried out - the employment of females and why, and their training as kindergarten assistants. In Malta, (as we think in the rest of the world) politics and education cannot be separated and a whole section is dedicated to the proposals made by the two main political parties in Malta as regards kindergartens and what has been actually implemented, including for instance the lowering to 3 years as admission age into kindergartens (October, 1988). The first chapter focuses more on how, the second one more on why. Different philosophies of pre-primary education are tackled in Chapter 2. The reasons (why?) for establishing and setting up kindergartens are given. Also we focus on important aspects of the kindergarten, including the aims and objectives of such institutions, the partnership between parents and teachers in early childhood education and the crucial role of play. The way children develop is intensified in the chapter by looking at the various aspects of development (including the important contribution of Jean Piaget and the criticism of his theory). Lastly we talk about the role of teachers in the pre-school which we consider as very important indeed. The central Chapter (Chapter 3) covers some of the important aspects of kindergarten education. Through our observations (total number: 20) in four different kindergarten centres, we elaborate on the classroom layout and resources found in the observed kindergartens, the teacher and the children (seen in the light of their developmental needs) and the everyday activities which are the foundation of kindergarten life. These are broken down in different sub-topics. Our small study is not meant to be an ethnography but an illustrative mini case to see how some of the kindergarten policies work in practise. We place great emphasis on the curriculum of the three and four year olds in Chapter 4 entitled "pedagogical practices". After viewing the controversy between two different poles of pre- primary curriculum, we consider some of the activities prescribed by the curriculum that are intended for the total development of the child, including reading and writing, number, language and physical development, music and art appreciation and science. Some space is devoted, lastly, to innovations in the curriculum, including subjects like art, music, nature study, movement, drama, religion, outings and resources, and also the issue of special education. In the last chapter, after exposing some features which characterize the nursery systems in different European countries (example language, religion, politics, geography, space, starting age, expenses, enrolment rates, pupil-teacher ratio, parental involvement, training courses for teachers, timetable and the curriculum), we compare our pre-school system with that of other countries. This leads us to view those aspects that in our opinion should be improved or eliminated from our kindergarten system.