Thursday, 6th November 2008 - 12:08CET
Updated: Bartolo complains of delays in MCAST ICT contract appeal
(Education Ministry's comments added)
Opposition education spokesman Evarist Bartolo has urged the Contracts Appeals Board to urgently consider the case he had raised about possible irregularities in the selection of ICT centres to provide ICT courses for MCAST students.
Some 600 students are still waiting for the courses to start – two months into the scholastic year.
Mr Bartolo said it was shameful that the Contracts Appeals Board had not yet even fixed a date to hear the case.
“The Contracts Appeals Board needs to call this case with urgency so that no more precious time is wasted, and students will not continue to suffer,” Mr Bartolo said.
Mr Bartolo said that while the Prime Minister had blamed him for the fact that the courses had not started, he would not have spoken up had everything been done regularly.
Furthermore, the police had concluded their investigations and what was holding the opening of the courses were the appeal procedures, Mr Bartolo said.
However, the Education Ministry said the investigations being carried out by the police at Mr Bartolo's request were not yet concluded.
The ministry promised students who could not start their course and their parents that Mcast would give them the same treatment and hours of learning as their colleagues who had already started.
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Comments
I am sorry, but what Evarist is doing to the Institute is not in our favor.
We are trying to work and this chaos is causing disorganization withing MCAST.
@ Carl Bezzina,
Just so you know the students have not been paid any stipend yet.
and it has been 4 Months.
and to top it all off we are not going to get paid for September .
Thanks
My cousin's daughter attended the same center (key) as your son. Is it true that during the course MCAST discovered that key center employed lecturers below the required standards and in fact were sacked towards the end of the course???
I believe all parents want to ensure that the best education is given to their sons and daughters. And all tax payers want to ensure that their taxes are being used well and not go into friends of friends pockets!
I repeat: wait for the results of the investigations and then comment afterwards!
Is this the thanks you give to those who seek to get the best for you?
No wonder the standard of students has gone down to such abysmal levels.
To all the Gonzipn apologist little elves, do you expect that if there is corruption it should be kept under wraps?
Why should the criteria and marks be changed because only one company qualified?
Is it because there were friend and friends of friends who could not make it with the published criteria?
It is OUR and YOUR taxes that will have to pay for corruption.
It is the usual P.N. tactics. People should beware/ Whistleblowers beware. That is what this subject is intended to mean. There are people who have a good smell when the P.N. does something like this
Why do we the students of Malta, always get patronized by these sort of people.
I am a student in the main MCASTIICT Campus bldg, and it is these sort of things which ruin everything.
Please Withdraw the case for the sake of our students !!!
With GonziPN apologists like you.....GonziPN does not need enemies :-)
What do you expect, that is:
Let them change the grades as if nothing happened?
Let them use unlicenced premises, and use premises not adequate for students with special needs?
Is it true that as Ms Mary Pace is saying, that students wih lesser grades have started in September at Mcast Poala whilst others with higher grades are on the waiting list?
It is time that the Minister concerned start answering the questing.
He who shouted “Wolf” some time ago, is now complaining!
i can assure you that my son has all the qualification to attend ICT course,he already done 1year at msida ,in fact there are students who do not have his qualification & they already started this ict course at poala!
Since a year ago when the government allowed all students who applied at MCAST ICT, irrespectable of their qualifications, to be part of MCAST although going to a private school the quality of students has gone down a lot.
So wait and you will be awarded.
Mr. Bartolo has done his duty, not like most of us Maltese who turn away and do nothing when we get to know of irregularities. He is efficicent unlike our Govt and the Contracts Appeals Board. I hope more MPs take his lead. Ahna Maltese Gemgem, biex ingergru tajbin biss, ghax xi hadd jiehu inizjativa npinguh ikrah!
It is really a pity and regrettable to know that many ex-technical Institute teachers, who were highly competent in technical subjects which are scarce to find, had to resort to teach in secondary schools. Our technical human resources and investment in technical and vocational education cannot be sacrificed. It is the responsibility of every Government to be 'patiently disposed' to listen to the views of others, otherwise the consequences are inevitable and conspicuous particularly when it concerns the technical and vocational sector.
I am student in MCAST ICT and I have 3 of my friends also who are waiting
Does anyone care about these hundreds of teenagers doing nothing, feeling
rejected, with all the consequencies in store, as week after week of idleness
is very dangerous. Where are our MP's who ALL of them should be pushing
for this case to be solved URGENLY.