'Mobile schools' plan

The Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools is planning to put in a 'mobile school' on a pilot basis at a school where students will have to be displaced from their classrooms for a long period due to works.

Prefabricated modular units will be assembled on site and the works cordoned off.

Foundation chairman Conrad Thake said the units would have all the basic services - drainage and water and electricity supply.

One candidate for the pilot project is the Tarxien boys' secondary school, for which the foundation has a planning permit to carry out extensive structural works.

If the pilot project proves successful, it might be extended to other schools in need of refurbishment.

The scheme would provide the foundation with more flexibility at schools where the major works required would be impossible to complete over a single summer.

"But we have to do it right the first time," said Mr Thake. "We don't want to go for a thrifty, improvisational approach. We need a mobile school that has been tested and proved successful.

"We have been looking around to see the way they function overseas and are currently in the process of preparing a tender, probably an international one."