Clean school

I refer to Chris Micallef's letter entitled Dirty School (September 14). First of all Mr Micallef claims to be a parent of a child attending Sir Temi Zammit Secondary School in Mtarfa, yet from the school's records there is no student with a parent or guardian with that name. All those involved in the school contest the claim that the school is dirty or that any part of it is "disgusting".

On Friday, September 14, the day the letter was published the Division of Education sent its inspectors to report on the whereabouts of the caretakers and the state of cleanliness of the school. The Education Officer in charge of this school also visited the school to see for herself. In both cases it was reported that the school was in a good condition and far from being dirty or disgusting. The caretakers were on site and were thoroughly cleaning the school in preparation for the beginning of the scholastic year.

The ministry has also checked with the school administration to see what state the school was in on August 31, the day Mr Micallef claims to have been in the school with his son. The headmaster has confirmed that the areas where parents met were in ship shape while some areas of the school (as this school is quite large) were clean and were in the process of being given the last thorough cleaning before the start of the scholastic year. For readers' information this entails the washing and scrubbing of all desks, walls, floors and apertures.

This summer inspections were made in all schools to ascertain that all caretakers were calling regularly for duty to minimise abuse. From our records it transpires that the caretakers of this particular school reported for duty regularly and the Head of School reported that the school was cleaned regularly.