The Maholian Way - Part Four: Education for a connected life

The different levels of schooling

Maholia divides up the years of schooling into four levels. Infant centres (or schools) cater for children up to seven or eight years of age. Then there is middle school (for children aged eight to thirteen), the transition years (for 14 to 15 year olds) and senior school (mostly for 16 and 17 year olds, but also for adults).

Maholia has phased out child care and kindergartens as separate kinds of institutions. With regard to child care, the argument is that all children need simultaneously to be cared for and have their capacities developed, and that when they are in institutional settings both these imperatives must always be attended to. Thus, the rationale for separate institutions disappears. Parents choose when to put their children into infant centres (up to the age of six when it is compulsory) but when they do the children are all under the direct or – in relation to private centres – indirect oversight of the Education Department and the centres are concerned with both care and education. Some infant centres that started as child care centres or kindergartens still remain separate, but most have been incorporated into centres catering for children from birth to eight. Of course the hours that younger children attend vary enormously.

These infant centres are almost as important for parents as they are for children. They usually contain infant welfare services where community nurses check and weigh babies and advise parents on feeding and other matters, as well as parenting classes and groups, and sometimes antenatal classes. Teachers work with parents to maximise learning in the home environment as well. Neighbourhood centres are often co-located with infant centres, providing a diverse range of classes and social activities for parents and other community members.

Maholians know from their own experience and from international evidence that heavy investment in early childhood is about the very best investment a society can make.

Middle school covers what would in other countries be the upper years of primary or elementary school and the first two years of secondary school. One advantage of dividing up the ages in this way is that twelve and thirteen year olds are able to remain in a relatively small school, instead of being (as they are in other countries) in a larger secondary school the size of which is dictated by the need to offer a range of subject choices in the school’s final years.

The Transition years give 14 to 15 year olds the chance to spend time away from book-learning and their home and community, to tackle new experiences and challenges and develop greater independence. About half of all school time in these years is spent in residential camps in wilderness areas, on farms, or in other distant locations. There are inner-city camps for country kids, island camps and live-in sailing boats. As previously mentioned, classes of students from different parts of the country are often brought together for a cross-cultural experience. Students engage in such things as wilderness activities, a range of new sports, farming, simple building, cooking, crafts, film-making, musical performances, hands-on technological projects, environmental projects, and historical and scientific research. In their time back in their regular school during these years they draw on what they have just experienced as raw material for further work in the subjects they are undertaking. They also continue to participate in and learn from the local community.

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