I must acknowledge the formidable achievements of Louis Galea in the field of education. Some of these achievements have only just been introduced and need time to be fully operational and be better judged.

Building on the work of his predecessors, he succeeded in leaving in place a structure that is capable of meeting the challenges of the future for our education system, without severing it completely from the past.

From Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, he took the historic Education Act of 1988, which had finally united all teachers in one professional body and raised their status to truly professional levels, and continued to work on it and hone it to reflect the sector's changing needs. This work culminated in the recent establishment of the Teachers' Council and the re-organisation of the Education Division into two directorates, one to deal with quality and standards, and the other with educational services.

From Michael Falzon, he took the concept of decentralisation and dealt with better infrastructure. The former led to the clustering of all primary and secondary schools into 10 colleges, which should not only ensure better use of resources through their respective principals, but also, hopefully, lead to the elimination of selection at 11+ and the smooth passage of all primary children into their respective secondary school. The latter is visible in the new schools and colleges, some of them truly state-of-the-art, which have been cropping up all over Malta and Gozo.

Dr Galea was a capable speaker with a vision, and a good listener. He always made sure to explain to parents the implications of what he was doing and was ready to consider their views.

He deserves to be considered one of our leading education ministers.