Education budget might not be enough, MUT says

The budget allocation of €362 million to education "might not be enough" to ensure that Malta achieves "excellence and quality" in education by 2015, as the government envisages, the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) said yesterday.

Reacting to the general measures announced in the 2009 budget, the MUT said it will again be the middle class that will shoulder the bulk of the burden, as will pensioners and their families. The improvements made in the tax bands were "insignificant" compared to what had been promised before the general election.

The MUT said it had been expecting the budget to soften the impact of the increase in utility tariffs. If the government had not "imposed outrageous and unreasonable tariffs", Monday's budget would have been a cautious and balanced one.

However, the union pronounced the budget as being very positive for the environment and it also welcomed the higher legal drinking age, now 17.