“The budget for next year confirms the commitment that this government has to continue improving the education sector, not only with a National Strategy for Education that will lead to a transformation of the sector, but also with investment continuous that we are doing in the educational infrastructure.”
This is what the Minister for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation Clifton Grima emphasized when he visited the work being done in the new school in Msida this morning. The project involved the demolition of the existing school and the construction of a completely new school on the same site. By decision of the Planning Authority, part of the facade of the old school was kept and was incorporated as a design in the new building.
Minister Grima spoke about the projects currently being carried out by the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools (FTS), spread throughout the country, to build new schools and to modernize and expand others. In other schools a complete regeneration is being done so that all this work leads to a modern and better educational environment for both the students and their educators. He also reiterated that this budget is full of measures that testify to the principles that this government embraces, including social mobility, and therefore investing heavily in education because education is the best a tool for families to move forward.
A budget which among others gives an incentive for those who continue to study, a strengthening of the stipend for everyone and the reform to incentivize certain sectors including those who want to become teachers in a number of subjects. In the same way there is the investment in the infrastructure of the schools.
This investment will lead to Msida having a new school with around 40 classes, 26 normal classes and a number of other classes for specific subjects including personal and social development, art, music, science , literacy, and ethics. This new school will also have a center for the protection of children, a public library and a hall that will accommodate around 300 people. The size of the whole school, including the recreation areas, is 10,000 square meters.
This school will also have parts of it open to the local community after school hours, including the public library, the hall and even part of the recreational space. Underneath the school there is also a car park on two levels with a capacity of around 180 cars. Part of this project also includes the construction of a new complex for the Msida Sea Scouts, with a space of more than 500 square meters outside and inside.
The CEO of FTS Neville Young explained, “The new school will have two innovative features for schools in our country. The concept of ‘outdoor classroom environment’ will be introduced with an outdoor space with custom furniture and surrounded by trees, plants and flowers, in which teachers will be able to do outdoor lessons. Another innovative concept is the creation of vertical gardens on one of the facades of the school and on the walls of the recreational spaces.”
This project is being carried out with an investment of around €22 million and will be partially financed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) of the European Union.
