Since the Education for All External Audit was presented to the Maltese Minister for Education and Employment in February 2015, follow-up developmental work has taken place in three different phases.
Phase 1 and phase 2 involved different stakeholders looking into and analysing the Maltese Educational context, while phase 3 was designed to look outwards, namely to analyse and explore different learning examples from other countries. Case studies from three areas from the West of Sweden – Gothenburg, Molndal and Essunga – were analysed.
Based on the Agency’s Organisation of Provision to Support Inclusive Education project (2011–2014), the programme was set to explore examples of developmental work being carried out in the three Swedish regions. The ultimate aim was to explore how educational authorities in these three municipalities moved from the why to the how of quality education for all.
The Maltese delegation was made up of the three Directors General from the Directorate Educational Services, the Directorate Operations and the Directorate Quality and Standards in Education, together with the Head of the Education for All Project team and the team members.
Through the different visits, as well as the various discussions with the Swedish counterparts, the Maltese delegation gained a clear understanding of how developmental processes work at different levels: school level (Essunga and Gothenburg) and at central level (Molndal, Gothenburg). The Swedish experiences that were shared also helped the Maltese delegation to reflect on how the developmental model could be applied to the Maltese context, where the following priority areas for work have been identified: leadership, training, support systems, flexible curriculum and assessment, and engagement of the community, including learners and parents.
The Maltese participants will now be able to use this experience when it comes to identifying evidence-based interventions that corroborate the developmental process. Schools will aim to adopt these processes in order to ensure high quality education for all.
