So where did Labour’s Old Guard go to university, then?

Published: June 15, 2012 at 8:18pm

Just look at this man’s reasoning, which is quite typical. Don’t they even to stop to wonder where Dom Mintoff, Karmenu Il-Guy Vella, Lino Spiteri, Leo Brincat, George Vella, and on and on and on went to university, if Malta’s university was only open to “noble families” and pillars of society in the 1960s?

Incredible.




34 Comments Comment

  1. Snoopy says:

    If I am not mistaken, the number of students in 1984 was around 800-900 – so even less than the 60’s (according to Jena Pierre Ellul)

  2. C Falzon says:

    Min kif jikteb bil malti jider li traba qabel izmin li tela llejber uw amel luniversita al kulhat u ranga isistema edukativa al kulmin Haqu

    minhaba ilfaqar li gab gonzi laqas qmis mandu bix jixtri miskin

  3. Groucho says:

    Leave his reasoning out of the equation for a moment here, and have a look at his spelling instead.

    I challenge anyone to find three consecutive correctly-spelled words.

    Ironic that this wordsmith is giving the world his views on education.

  4. GiovDeMartino says:

    I don’t know who Jean Pierre is, but 60 per cent of what he wrote in Maltese is mis-spelt.

  5. Lilla says:

    Għandu għalfejn jitkellem fuq l-livell ta’l-igradwati dan bil-Malti mħanżer li jikteb.

    Aħjar jitgħallem hu l-ewwel.

    Nixtieq nkun naf jekk dan igradwax, forsi għalih nnifsu qiegħed jgħid.

    Ara veru sewwa jgħidu, l-iktar nies li jitfħu ħalqhom huma dawk l-inqas li għandhom x’jgħidu.

  6. Anthony says:

    Really incredible that this guy has the cheek to talk about the history of Malta’s university.

    What an affront.

    He writes 80 words in his native language with 50 mistakes thrown in for good measure.

    He certainly has what it takes to be MEP 457.

  7. FP says:

    Tajjeb li wiehed isemmi li qabel tela’ l-Partit Nazzjonalista fl-1987, l-aktar li stajt tittama ghalih int u xi hadd bhalek kien li tidhol mal-pijunieri.

    Ara llum, int iggradwat draughtsman mill-MCAST.

    Ghal xi raguni misterjuza, qed inqabblek mal-vapur t’Ghawdex.

  8. A Zammit says:

    I earnestly hope that this one particular specimen is not a ‘famus’ product of this same university.

    They should introduce a minimum (real) O-level standard for eligibility to hold a Facebook account.

    Il-vera biza.

  9. Dickens says:

    L-universita’ saret b xejn ghal KULLHADD QABEL ma tela’ il-gvern Mintuffjan fin-1971.

    Meta kienu fl-antik jithallsu il-mizati ghal min kien gej min familja li ma setghetx thallas, kienu isiru il-means tests biex kazijiet hekk jigu ezentati milli ihallsu.

    Il-problemi inholqu mil-gvern Mintoffjan fis-sebghejnijiet meta tnehhew il-maggjor partu tal-korsijiet, kellu ikollok il-parrinu biex tidhol l-universita, kien hemm diskriminazzjoni negativa ta’ ghoxrin punt ghal kull min kien gej minn skola privata, u hafna mil-hin meta suppost qed tistudja, kont tispicca jibghatuk strike-breaker jew taghmel xoghol li ma jkun relatat xejn mal-kors li kont tkun qed tattendi, kif kien isir fic-Cina Kommunista u il-Korea ta’ Fuq.

    Mhux ta b’xejn Duminku Mintoff tant ma kellux fiducja fir-riformi tieghu stess, li lil uliedu baghthom jistudjaw barra minn Malta fl’Ewropa kapitalista ta’ Kajjin.

  10. xmun says:

    I trust Mr Ellul is not a graduate in Maltese.

  11. toyger says:

    This guy should really check his history. Under Labour, it was actually MORE difficult to get into university, what with the point system and everything.

    It is NOW that anyone who works hard manages to enter university, with all the options one could wish for.

    It is true that the level of certain graduates leaves a lot to be desired, but one cannot generalise.

    As regards to jobs, in my course (graduating 2007) everyone had found a job by April of our final year, two months before sitting for our finals.

  12. Paul Bonnici says:

    I love the flawless Maltese spelling.

    Has he been to university?

  13. Clifford says:

    Forsi xi hadd ikun jista’ jghid kemm nies gradwaw mill-universita’ ta’ Malta bejn 1971 u 1987 u jikkomparah ma’ kemm gradwaw bejn 1998 u 2010.

  14. Manuel Camilleri says:

    Jean Pierre Ellul is at MCAST – where he would have been unable to go under Labour, because it didn’t exist. Maybe Joseph Muscat convinced Ellul that MCAST was also a Labour government brainwave.

    • John Schembri says:

      Jekk qieghed (qijid) l-MCAST ghandu ragun jghid (jejt) li-il-livell (vivel) ta’ l-edukazzjoni nieqsa (naqsa). Kien (kin) onest biz-zejjed jghid (jejt) li qalulu hekk (ekk) in-Nazzjonalisti (nazjonalisti).

      Meta tahsel ras ta’ hmar tkun qed tahli l-ilma u s-sapun.

    • Marcus says:

      Actually MCAST already existed but as soon PL/MLP were voted into power in 1971, when University attendance was already free, MCAST was disbanded and it had to be PN in government to re-establish this educational institution.

  15. MM says:

    Nahseb dan gradwat fil-Malti.

  16. Peter F says:

    And Jean Pierre Ellul learnt to spell….where?

    • FP says:

      Obviously our education system failed Mr Ellul (well, that’s what parents like to say).

      But our system afforded him an opportunity elsewhere and he took it. His Maltese spelling is atrocious, and I suspect so is his English. Yet even for people like him, MCAST offers a second chance at becoming something other than an uneducated outCAST in society.

      He can’t even spell the title of his own job, but he graduated as a draughtsman all the same.

      He’s too young to have experienced Mintoff’s education system first hand, so he can only rely on the stories that were passed on to him, totally oblivious to the fact that those stories belong to the Children’s Fiction section.

  17. gianni says:

    When a jidhlu becomes a jithlu that person is off.

  18. el bandido guapo says:

    What’s incredible is that he got his “facts” completely wrong.

    Next he’ll be telling us that Labour was elected in ’87 after successive years of Nationalist government that ruined the economy.

    What a plonker.

  19. g says:

    What is he on about?

    L-ghoxrin punt min holom bihom? Numerous clausus?

    13 O levels and 4 A levels and you are not sure if you will get into the course of your choice?

    If this man really wants to rewrite history then maybe he should choose another subject, not university and education, which are the PN’s undisputed success story.

  20. Dee says:

    Hudu hawda f’ghajnek Sur Ellul u irringrazzja l Alla li inholoq l MCAST biex eluf kbar ta’ studenti bhalek jistu jattendu u jiehdu kwalifika dicenti biex jaqalghu il-hobza ta’ kull jum minghajr ma jkollom bzonn jittalbu ghal favuri minghand hadd.

    Kieku kont fiz-zmien tad-deheb ta’ Duminku, kieku kont tispicca bl-azzarin f’xi korp tal-Pijunieri jew id-Dejma jew tahsel l-art tal-latrini tal-Isptar Monte Karmeli. Jew watchman mal-Maghtab.

  21. elephant says:

    Where in Blazes did George Vella, Charles Mangion, Karmenu Vella and the rest of the “poor” Labour LL.Ds and MDs and A&CEs get their degrees from? Did they, then, have rich sponsors?

  22. Lupin says:

    Oliver Friggieri jmut jekk jara kif jikteb Jeanne Pierre Ellul. U l-isbah, irid jaghmilha tal-bravu jurina kemm jifhem. Tipikament Labour.

    Id-differenza li dan ma jilbisx glekk u ngravata biex jimpressjona kif jaghmlu ta madwar Joseph Muscat. Bhala kampjuni ta’ dan l-ezempju nsibu lil Joseph Cuschieri, Stefan Buontempo, Joe Mizzi… Inkompli?

  23. Aidan Zammit Lupi says:

    People should remember how many students were forced to leave Malta during the “golden years” of Labour.

    Medical students were banned because they dared to protest against the government. Sixth formers from private schools were refused entry at Malta University because of the infamous twenty points.

    Practically the only way to get through was to migrate to the New Lyceum after fifth form. Many of my classmates gave in to the pressure and did that. We have to remember that there was huge fear. Labour thugs and police were even stopping children from entering their schools.

    My qualifications were enough to get me in notwithstanding the private school penalty but for some mysterious reason I was kept out. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that I had dared to represent the students at a mass meeting organised to protest against the attempted closure of the schools.

    Maybe we would need to ask the person who was the head of the selection board at the University of Malta at that time. He still sits in parliament today.

  24. Evarist Saliba says:

    Leaving aside the atrocious level of the Maltese language used, which condemns the writer as totally unqualified to write on education, the alleged facts that he quotes depict him as a “mazzun” (gudgeon) who has swallowed all the rubbish that his party has perversely invented about its contribution to education in Malta.

    When Joseph Muscat was elected leader of the party, I listened to his address to party members when he told them to love his wife. That embarassing appeal accompanied a story about an intelligent boy from a modest family who grew up to be well educated thanks to the education system that the old members of the party had built up. That boy was himself.

    At that very moment I knew that I could not trust that man because he must have known that Mintoff’s experimentation in education was condemned by no other person than R. Dahrendorf, a German educationist recruited by Mintoff, who refused to be associated any longer with what Mintoff was implementing.

    The number of courses offered by the university had been significantly reduced and made utalitarian in content, student population plumeted to a very low level, places were limited while entrance depended on sponsorship.

    Secondary education was modelled on the Chinese communist work-phase system which the Chinese were abandoning.

    The list of graduates from the Royal University of Malta, prior to 1971, contains persons from all walks and levels of Maltese society, including many within the fold of the Malta Labour Party.

    That is the truth.

    • kram says:

      Joseph Muscat was in Form 2 at St Aloysius College in 1987, so in 1985 he left the state educational system and continued his education in a Jesuit school. Is this lack of trust in the Labour’s educational system?

      So Muscat’s education was mostly under the Nationalist government and the opportunities opened by the said government can be shown by his ability to further his education. Would it have been the same if Labour was in power? But then it would have been whom you knew to progress in your career.

  25. elephant says:

    The then “selection board” was a “hnizrijja”.

    Alfred Sant was the man, aided and abetted by a person who had to obey orders in the fear that her husband would not be allowed to stay in Malta, being English. Entry to university was practically reserved for people whose parents were definitely Labour – with or without qualifications. Those were the golden years for you.

  26. NotThere says:

    Anyone seen Joseph’s new brainwave? Less than two weeks after his lightning visit to Dubai, he formulated a policy that reclamation was a way to go for Malta.

    Did the bulb light up in his head after seeing the glitzy brochures for The World and the three Palm Islands developments which were a big thing in Dubai until the world came to its senses and noticed that we were spending more money than we had!

  27. Tida says:

    Hija hasra li hafna mill-kummenti huma bl-Ingliz ghaliex jekk is-Sur Ellul lanqas jaf jikteb bil-Malti sew ghandi d-dubji tieghi kemm se jfhem l-Ingliz.

    Forsi kien jitghallem ftit kif kienu verament l-affarijiet regward l-edukazzjoni dak iz-zmien.

  28. mac says:

    In 1987 the total number of students at University was 800-900, while now there are about 10 to 12,000. And we who used to attend church schools were left out because of the ’20 punt’. That’s Labour for you.

  29. Toninu says:

    Bil-kitba tieghu is-Sur Ellul taghlima wahda ta’ lil kulhadd.

    Li ghandek sistema edukattiva tajba kemm hi tajba … mhux ma kulhadd thalli l-frott kif mixtieq.

    At this stage, I sincerely hope that he’s not a university student, though.

Leave a Comment