An open letter to the Minister of Education

To the Minister of Education, MATSEC Board, Respective Authorities,

It comes and goes in waves. Now more than ever. Do you remember that time the radio only played one song? It comes and goes in waves. That one. It always does. I want to believe that one day I will become the sea. Everything melts into it – your words are the wave beat of troubled sea, the first whisper of our tragedy. In English, death has a rare sound, it rhymes with breath, which is rather a lovely grouping. You tell us to breathe – but when breath rhymes with death, its harder to go through with it.

We are not sure that you are the wall we should lean on or the wall that blocks us away from the rest of our lives. Your actions act like a ripple tank, giving more and more strength to the waves each and every time they return. You’d like to believe that we will return to each other in waves, because that is how the water loves – but if you’d look at the waves, you’ll realize that they never return to each other in the same way.

Paramora sings, “and here we go again/ with all the things we said”. How many times do we have to go again until you stop believing that we are not “online learning” but “panic learning”. The waves are in the ocean, and they are returning, possibly quicker than we have presumed. How long until the waves are no longer in the ocean, but remember us and come to swallow us whole? 

We have stopped treading the water and have held our head above the waves for too long – we have forgotten how much we have always loved to swim.

So please, stop telling us to trust you, because we’re all still coughing up the water from the last time you left us to drown.

Yours truly,

A (very) concerned student.

Written by: Klara Vassallo

A movement of students started by Marelaine Formosa, has since resulted in the sending of more than 150 emails by various students to the ministry expressing their concern. Some are shown below. The original letter can be seen here.