Positive parenting policy launched for public consultation

The need for joint governance has become a major challenge, education minister Evarist Bartolo warned.

"It's often as though there are ten governments in one Cabinet, each ministry doing its own thing," Bartolo said. "If we are serious about the need for joint governance, then inter-ministerial coordination must be properly addressed on a structural level."

He was speaking at a public consultation session amongst teachers for the family ministry's positive parenting policy.

"There are things that cannot be solved by education or counselling and we therefore need socio-economic measures to help socially excluded children," Bartolo said.

"While I believe that the education of children is everyone's responsibility, this frame of thought often leads to parents and teachers shrugging off responsibility of children onto the other."

Family minister Michael Farrugia called for more emphasis on community services.

"In the coming weeks, parliament will start discussing a draft law on care orders," he said. Ideally, care orders are temporary means, after which children will return to their families. 

"We also need to look at whether families prioritise children when it comes to spending their money, and indeed we'll start a programme with local councils this year to identify this."

'Need to discover why parenting skills are lacking'

Sandra Cortis, service manager at the Directorate for Educational Services, warned that parent participation in parenting skills programmes has lowered in recent years. 

"We need to ask why parents are choosing not to participate in them," Cortis said.

"It is clear that parenting skills are lacking and we need to find out why. Is it because parents are too tired after a day's work, because they have financial difficulties, or because they leave their children with carers at an early age?"

She quoted studies that show that Maltese adolescents have a low degree of trust in their parents and that the degree of trust between children and fathers in Malta is particularly low. 

"We must stress that parent craft courses are for expecting fathers as well as for mothers," she said, pointing out that the document makes no reference to single fathers.

She also called on the government to set up more state homes for abused children and to tackle cases whereby children's birth certificates state that their father is 'unknown' when this would not be the case.

The policy proposes the creation of a forum for children in primary and secondary schools where they will be able to speak about society and families. However, Cortis warned that children feel more comfortable speaking about their problems in a contained setting rather than in a group one.