Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools has saved government Lm3m - Dr Galea

Education Minister Louis Galea said yesterday that in the 18 months since its setting up the Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools had given a sterling service and already saved the government some Lm3 million on the rehabilitation of school buildings.

The minister, who was speaking during the budget debate on the Ministry of Education, also said that it was hoped that the university would hold a regular course for educational psychologists from next year.

Opposition education spokesman Evarist Bartolo, who spoke first, said the debts incurred by the government were a threat to the future of young people. For every Lm1 being spent on primary and secondary education, Lm1.50 were being spent on debt servicing.

It was deceitful to claim that EU membership would mean better schools. Educational standards varied widely between EU states, and it was clearly up to national governments to show the required commitment to prepare young people for the challenges they faced.

In Malta, too many young people were not achieving the basic skills demanded by the labour market.

There were also evident regional inequalities in education and the government was doing nothing about it. For every person from Cospicua who obtained a Matsec certificate, there were four in Attard.

Would the government, in view of EU accession, introduce VAT on books and literature, which would impinge on the education sector?

Mr Bartolo criticised the government for having allowed the sector of children with special learning requirements to fall back.

In four years the university course for educational psychologists had not been reopened, despite the urgent need for such people. The number of people who could teach sign language had dropped to four from 12. Students such as those suffering from dyslexia were falling behind.

Mr Bartolo said the state education sector also had a serious shortage of teachers for information technology. At the same time, experienced instructors who taught in trade schools were being lost.

Some 60 per cent of young people were not continuing education beyond the secondary level and some 2,000 students left secondary school without employment skills.

There was need for development plans for all schools, and teachers needed to follow courses tailored according to the needs of their localities.

Mr Bartolo said initiatives being taken after school hours were not reaching the children most in need.

A Labour government would place increased emphasis on subjects such as literacy, maths and information technology, draw up a plan for general secondary education with more relevant teaching content and ensure that Matsec exams were better run. Candidates would also be able to see their corrected papers.

Teachers would be involved in the drawing up of new syllabi for all schools, and the whole education sector would be run in partnership with teachers, parents and the social partners.

A Labour government would also renew apprenticeship schemes.

Mr Bartolo observed that the chief executive of the Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools was paid more than the director-general and the directors of education, and there was no return from the funds going to the foundation.

The foundation had borrowed Lm15 million from APS Bank and been given Lm3 million by the government. Where had the money gone? He was sure that the auditor-general would show up irregularities in the foundation if his current investigation was effective, despite the foundation's efforts to hide everything.

Mr Bartolo observed that nobody had been held to account after the auditor-general found that Lm110,000 had been squandered on the failed introduction of the School Information System.

An audit was also needed on how funds were being used on smart cards and stipends.

Mr Bartolo said the Restoration Centre had become a republic in itself and an explanation had still not been given over how its relations with Italian institutions had failed.

The workers in the culture sector did not know what their future held following the changes in that sector.

Mr Bartolo said there were no new plans or funds on heritage protection, despite the many promises made in the wake of the attack on the Mnajdra temples.

There was also a senior manpower problem in the national library, the national archives and public libraries.

Mr Carmelo Abela said the government had not kept its promise to allocate one per cent of its expenditure for sports. Neither had it built the three sports complexes it promised. Indeed, would the Cottonera sports complex be ready by February?

Mr Abela said a Labour government would investigate whether the Marsa racecourse gate project had really absorbed the Lm87,000 said to have been spent on it. Did the government plan to privatise the racecourse?

He criticised an increase in fees for participants at Skolasport. Mr Abela said Sports Department workers still did not know what their future held after the enactment of the sports law which would replace the department with a new sports council.

He also referred to youth affairs and said the government was not offering new job opportunities. Forty-nine per cent of the unemployed, he said, were aged under 30.

With unemployment being a major problem in the EU, it did not appear that accession would ease this problem. The reduction in stamp duty on first-time property purchases was welcome, but property prices were expected to rise faster as a result of EU membership.

Parliamentary Secretary Jesmond Mugliett said the situation in the education sector now was far better than the uncertainty of the Labour years.

No Labour government ever introduced a new curriculum or information technology in education. They never set up a vocational college.

Never had students had so many opportunities to follow post-secondary courses as at present. Neither did they have so many opportunities to study abroad in EU programmes. The response to these programmes had been astounding and ran into hundreds of participants.

In the sports sector, capital spending had risen from Lm250,000 allocated in the two years of the Labour government and not fully utilised, to Lm1.3 million this year alone.

Mr Mugliett said the Cottonera sports complex would be completed on time. The Tal-Qroqq sports hall was completed this year and the facilities at Marsa were being upgraded. The Marsa racetrack too was upgraded.

He said tariffs at Skolasport had risen so that more funds could be available for coaches and coaching, as well as for facilities.

Intensive activity was in hand on the organisation of the Small Nations Games.

Mr Mugliett said that in four years, sports associations had been given more than Lm1 million in assistance.

Turning to youth affairs, he said that apart from the increased educational facilities for young people, the government was working closely with the NGOs of young people. The national youth policy was being reviewed and the government was considering whether or not to replace the Department of Youths.

Mr Mugliett said the government would soon set up an innovation relay centre linking up with a network of such centres in EU and EFTA countries.

Winding up, Education Minister Louis Galea said PN governments had invested Lm60 million in education in 15 years compared to Lm21 million in 19 years of Labour government.

Referring to Mr Bartolo's remarks on VAT, Dr Galea observed that educational material had also been subject to CET introduced by the Labour government.

The opposition's credibility was being eroded by its negative attitude to education when it was well known that the education system here was in the worldwide high development index.

He was not happy with literacy levels, Dr Galea said, because even one illiterate person was one too many. More remained to be done so that all young people left the education system with the basic skills they needed.

Good work was being done by the literacy unit, and the sector of complimentary education was continuing to be extended. The recommendations of the literacy survey report were being followed and there had never been so much awareness on literacy in schools. Preparations were now in hand for a similar exercise on numeracy.

Dr Galea said the Foundation for Education Services was operating from only two offices but was present in 20 centres. It was giving a sterling service through a range of new initiatives.

The minister said he was not convinced that enough progress had been made at the Special Learning Unit. Dr Galea said one of his priorities had been the training of people to help children with disabilities and he would admit that not enough had been done so far. Perhaps he should have been more forceful in chasing progress.

Problems had cropped up on the funding of the university course for educational psychologists, but they were eventually solved and a course ended in July. Hopefully the university would now accept to hold the course regularly from next year.

Mr Bartolo had said that 2,000 students left secondary school without basic skills, but perhaps Mr Bartolo was a very good spin doctor. Figures showed that 98.6 per cent of people in that age group were basically literate. Of 5,000 who left Form Five, 4,000 had at least one SEC certificate.

A tracer study by the Guidance Unit showed that 65 per cent of those who left Form Five took up post-secondary courses. In the past five years an average of 4,700 students every year started a post-secondary school.

ETC figures showed that the number of people aged under 18 who started registering for work was 425 between July and September, of which 56 per cent had an "O" level standard, six per cent had A level, and 37 per cent had a school leaving certificate.

Dr Galea said a huge volume of work had accompanied the introduction of the new curriculum and all objective observers could appreciate the progress made across the educational spectrum.

Mr Bartolo had said instructors were being lost, yet 160 of them had followed a university course in technology education.

Dr Galea said the government was allocating Lm4.5 million for MCAST, Lm2 million more than last year. More institutes would be opened next year as this college became the second column of post-secondary education.

Dr Galea said the University had successfully gone through a revolution, with the student population having risen to 9,500 and now there were more women than men studying there. The workers' class never had as much access as today to the highest levels of education.

Turning to the Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools, Dr Galea said the foundation had not borrowed Lm15 million but had been granted the facility to borrow as much. The foundation had been tasked to revamp government school buildings by 2010, but Labour was threatening to stop this process and dismantle the foundation. So much for vision. Mr Bartolo had been critical of the CEO's salary, but had not explained a cost over-run of Lm800,000 in his ministry in the few months before the 1998 election.

Mr Bartolo had managed to slow the foundation's programme, a fact which would be suffered by schools and their students, Dr Galea said. Yet its achievements so far were impressive, with the foundation already having managed to save the government Lm3 million.

Dr Galea said the auditor's remarks on the School Information System were an eye opener and his recommendations were being considered.

Concluding, Dr Galea said the relations of the Restoration Centre with Italian institutes were at their best, the centre also having been visited by the Italian ambassador.