Students switched on to switch off

The new primary school in Pembroke will be the first building in Malta not to receive an electricity bill and not because of some postal error.

The school was running on electricity produced by solar and wind energy and other schools, such as the one being built in Mosta, would minimise electrical consumption, Education Minister Dolores Cristina said yesterday.

Mrs Cristina, along with Parliamentary Secretary Chris Said, was launching a new competition in primary schools related to the Flick The Switch campaign.

In this campaign, over 24,000 primary school students can make a difference to their environment with their ideas, drawings and initiatives and win their school a solar water heater.

Flick The Switch is a two-year project aimed at getting children in primary and secondary schools across Europe into the habit of switching off lights and electrical devices when they are not in use.