Dr Edward de Bono, the inventor of Lateral Thinking, will be talking to Year 4 primary school children from government schools at the Mediterrenean Conference Centre on the 26 May 1999. He will be introducing them to the direct teaching of thinking.  This is a joint initiative between The Ministry of Education, The Edward de Bono Foundation (Malta ), The Edward de Bono Programme for the Design and Development of Thinking at the university of Malta and Playmobil (as part of their 25th anniversary celebration).  There will be two sessions, each of which will cater for 1,400 schoolchildren.

This event is a follow-up to the talk which Edward de Bono has given to all primary school teachers at the Mediterrenean Conference Centre in September 1997. Dr de Bono's services are being provided free of any charge. This will be the fifth talk of this nature and a first for Malta.

Dr de Bono has previously talked to 5,000 children in Christchurch, New Zealand, 3,000 in Sydney and 4,000 in Melbourne.  In the West suburbs of Melbourne(where the Maltese population is bigger than in Malta) 426 school principals have been trained.

This is a unique opportunity for Maltese primary school children to experience a session of Thinking Skills conducted by Dr Edward de Bono himself and should be a special occasion. The teaching of constructive thinking to younsters is the basis of personal development, social development and economic development. Similar talks will be organised in due course.

Dr Edward de Bono was born in Malta and educated at the University of Malta. His thinking tools and lateral thinking techniques, which are mandatory in the curriculum in some countries, are well-known all over the world and are used in schools in many countries including Venezuela, Singapore, Australia, Canada and Malta. Malta has remained rather far behind much of the world in this respect. Dr de Bono has just returned from a visit to Bahrain, Dubai, Oman and Kuwait.  Earlier in the year he was in South Africa, Australia, USA and Argentina (where he spoke to 500 people in the Ministry of Education).

Contact persons:

Sandra Dingli                                                                           Daniela Bartoli
The Edward de Bono Programme                                              The edward de Bono Foundation (Malta)
For the Design and Development of Thinking                             Tel: 0942 1555; 226 157
University of Malta
Tel: 3290 2434; 323 981
 

18 May,1999