Court action again delays start of IT courses

About 450 students are still waiting to start their IT and computing classes at the Malta College for Art, Science and Technology, nearly a month after the opening of the academic year.

A similar problem arose last year and this time it again revolves around a court injunction that has brought to a halt the selection process for the provision of private trainers.

An Education Ministry spokesman said a private institute that had submitted a tender was deemed by the National Commission Persons with Disability to lack access and was therefore disqualified. The institute applied for the issue of an injunction and the case is still in court.

The college said: "While regretting the late start of these programmes and while hoping that a solution may soon be found, it must be stressed that this situation has resulted from circumstances beyond Mcast's control".

It gave a reassurance that the programme of studies would be concluded before the start of the next academic year.

An Education Ministry said the problem did not revolve around a shortage of teachers. "Mcast has done its utmost and has succeeded in engaging a sufficient number of academic staff so as to fully exploit its physical space and available facilities," the spokesman said.

The courses, he said, had reached saturation point and needed to use private training providers to accommodate all the applicants.

"One hopes that courses will start within a few weeks but this depends upon circumstances beyond Mcast's control."

This is not the first time that Mcast ICT students will be starting their course later than they were meant to.

Last year, the selection of teaching centres had to be postponed because of allegations that there had been irregularities in the selection process.

A police investigation requested by Labour MP Evarist Bartolo subsequently found no irregularities on the part of the selection board responsible for the granting of contracts. It did point to negligence, however.

The spokesman said the courses that had yet to start were the Mcast foundation certificate in computing, Mcast/BTEC first diploma for IT practitioners and the Mcast/BTEC national diploma in computing.

However, a student in aviation maintenance said he and fellow students had also missed a number of school days.

Christian Camilleri, 16, started an induction course on October 8. But he and his classmates have not had another lesson since.

"They told us we would be starting again on November 10," he said, adding that he still did not know how the students would recover the lost time.