Minister of Finance and Labor Clyde Caruana and Minister of Education Justyne Caruana addressed a news conference about the huge investment this government has made in education for this school year.
Finance and Labor Minister Clyde Caruana said the Covid-19 pandemic over the past few months has brought with it major challenges including that of opening schools. He said, “For this year, over one school year, the government has spent over € 30 million to enable our children to get the best education with all the necessary precautions. This investment was very important because we are looking to the future of our children ”.
Minister Caruana said that during the summer months, this government addressed certain concerns that were there, among them from the teachers ’unions about the opening of the school year for this year. Today, the government, unlike some other countries, is not because it has not closed schools, but because we see that the decisions it has taken have yielded the desired results.
Minister Caruana explained that this additional € 30 million was spent primarily to increase accessibility in transport, increase supervision and invest in all the equipment necessary for schools to prepare for the new reality of pandemic. In addition to state schools, Church and independent schools also benefited from this money.
Minister Caruana said that in the coming weeks he will be explaining in a tangible way how all the help given by the government in the last budget and in the financial envelopes that were presented during the months of pandemic.
Minister of Education Justyne Caruana gave an account of what has been done so that with the closure of schools in March due to the pandemic, work began immediately to reopen schools at the appropriate time, as they actually opened at the beginning of last October.
The Minister for Education said the ministry has been proactive from the outset in the extraordinary circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 move. They started with the first meetings at local as well as international level, among them with the World Health Organization and the Maltese health authorities.
A working group has been set up with the main stakeholders, responsible for continuing teaching during the closure of schools made up of officials in the ministry and representatives from the three sectors: the State, the Church and the independent schools together with the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT).
The priority was that while continuing the education of the students, work would be done to get the students back on the school benches. A framework of 5 possible scenarios related to the reopening of schools has therefore been developed.
Childcare centers reopened, schools and summer activities reopened, MATSEC exams held, schools and educational institutions opened to date, a call was issued. for recording lessons and a virtual primary school was set up for vulnerable students among others.
Minister Caruana said that a free internet site was also launched – teleskola.com.mt with online learning resources and today this site is being updated daily with a number of online lessons being conducted by educators in various subjects. To date, there are 3,000 online lessons on this site.
All this work has been done and is a clear testament to the government’s commitment to continuing the education of children and students. The expenditure that has been incurred and will continue to be incurred until the end of next June, when the school year ends again, is also proof of how much the government has taken and is taking health and safety seriously. the safety of children, educators and all school workers.
