Of saints and sacred cows

We were definitely more secular in the 1970s when one particular school in Handaq was named for Mikiel Anton Vassalli.

A few years ago the government took a decision to name all nine colleges in Malta for Roman Catholic saints, including our own Saint George Preca.

Surprisingly the only college not to be named for a saint is the one in Gozo – which is simply referred to as the Gozo college. On this count we were definitely more secular in the 1970s when one particular school in Handaq was named for Mikiel Anton Vassalli – a lone Maltese intellectual who sided with the French against the Maltese insurgents.

By naming all our colleges for remote saints like St Nicholas (a fourth century Turkish bishop who by some historical mishap became associated with a fair-haired bloke from the North Pole) the authorities are sending the message that the only figures our children can aspire to are saints.

It’s time to assert our secularism and call on the government to name at least some of our 10 colleges for local and global figures who shaped our intellect. My favourites would be philosophers Voltaire and Spinoza, renowned for their defense of religious freedom; and Giordano Bruno, a Dominican friar burnt on the stake for believing that the universe harbours a plurality of worlds similar to our own.

And I wouldn’t mind having a school named for Oscar Romero, a Catholic bishop murdered for his staunch defence of human rights. Ironically, one of our colleges is named for Saint Thomas More – a literary genius and humanist – who heroically died refusing to recant his Catholic views after having himself sent hundreds of Protestant heretics to the stake.

Sacred cows

University graduates, especially those who become ‘rich’ through lucrative employment, should pay back at least a part of the money invested in their education by society. In my opinion the best way to do this is through a graduate tax. This will ensure that our universities remain free for all, including those whose families would never afford tuition fees and who are encouraged to continue their education by the stipend system.

Means-testing students to determine who deserves a stipend or not sounds good on paper but could be a messy process in which students with parents who do not declare their full income could end up being rewarded. It would also assess students on the basis of their parents’ fortunes – a messy process at an age when students are asserting their independence.

Rather than wasting time trying to reform this idiosyncratic but popular aspect of our social model (which is slowly but steadily being eroded by inflation), the government should seek to get back part of the sum invested in university students through a graduate tax. This should be proportionate to income and paid over a period of time in a way that its impact on living standards is contained. All funds gained through this tax should go back to fund the university or to the education system in general.