I am from a post-war, third world country and it stands to reason that the quality of education offered in our schools (especially tertiary institutions) should be far from perfect.

I refuse to take this as an excuse because the foundation of a civilized society is largely derived from the content of the characters of its citizens-those who come from the walls of the very schools we’re talking about.

Whatever the case, there is a non-avoidable tendency for students to leave universities half-baked or not baked at all. Some leave worst than they entered.

I am currently prospecting for a graduate degree in Malta. The program is a collaborative degree program between the University of Malta and the San Diego State University in California.

I’m not sure how this initiative worked out between the two universities but I think if the above article is anything to go by, something has to be done. I paid for my college education here in Liberia and to know that Maltese are paid to go to school is just interesting.

Yes you’re right. Just like John Dalli, I wasn’t following “all” the news, unlike him I wasn’t on holiday in Gozo, I was working, earning my living and this article was unfortunately missed. Well written.

Not even A-level, intermediate English is enough, and it’s an incredibly easy one.

The weakest link in the system is teachers who do not know how to speak, write or teach.

I remember covering only Maltese history at both primary and secondary school and my only memory of the geography we did in class is something about limestone.

I hear it has changed a little since then, but unfortunately, many Maltese, at least of my generation, are very often incapable of having a conversation about anything other than their personal lives, that’s unless they were brought up in a home where their parents exposed them to something more than what their neighbours were up to four doors down.

Another problem is that many university students in Malta do not have to strive for their education.

Unlike students in many other countries, in Malta, university students are paid to go to university and do not have to move out of their parents’ home to be closer to campus.

I understand that for Malta to have an educated workforce students need to be encouraged to further their education, but somewhere the system is not working as it should.

Malta certainly has many people with degrees but take these people out of university and you soon notice they have little more than academic intelligence, if that.

They leave university in their mid-20s, and even later, without having experienced certain essentials.

In other countries, university is seen as a place where students learn a lot more than how to pass a test.

This, combined with the ease at which you can obtain a university degree in Malta, means that the value of these degrees is being lost and we’re left with people with a degree, even three or four, who lack every day, practical intelligence and who sometimes know very little about what is happening outside of their family unit and social circle.

The sad thing, David, is that the essay would probably get you an A.

It’s even simpler than that. English is our second official language. Enough said. We can either get our act together or stop deluding ourselves and change that bit of the constitution.

The University of Malta is forever short of funds and we want to open a second university.

Unless this one will start charging tuition fees, in which case it’ll be torches and pitchforks.

Why look for an expensive, complicated, unworkable solution when the best solution is right under our noses? Just raise standards, starting from O Levels and earlier.

If undergraduates cannot speak and write English, then somewhere down the line the system let them through when it was meant to filter them out.

The vast majority of delegates, about 5000, came from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

To facilitate matters all the proceedings were in English.

The standard of English across the board, from speakers to posters, put most Maltese (not to mention British) university graduates to shame.