Sustainability can only be maintained through reform - Dalli

Education Minister Dolores Cristina said her ministry will be analysing the conclusions reached by the European Commission's Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs in their annual report on public finances in the European Monetary Union.

The ministry will take all the necessary and feasible action to ensure a good quality of higher education.

The report concluded that millions of euros could be saved if healthcare and tertiary education were reformed.

It claimed that Malta could save up to three fifths of its current spending on healthcare and more than a fourth of its budget allocated to tertiary education while securing the same results.

"The National Commission for Higher Education has already undertaken an analysis on the funding of state institutions in higher education and is making recommendations on possible improvements to the current framework," Ms Cristina said.

According to the minister, the government had identified education as one of the three pillars for the country's future and was committed to establishing the island as a centre of excellence in education by 2015.

Social Policy Minister John Dalli, who is responsible for health, agreed with the report's conclusions and said he had also been saying that the country had to start a healthcare reform.

"The reform is the basis of healthcare's viability and sustainability. Sustainability can only be maintained through reform," he said.