Music school decision ‘hasty’

The Labour Party has criticised Education Minister Dolores Cristina for taking what it said was a rushed decision to split up Valletta’s Johann Strauss School of Music into a number of small centres.

In a statement, the PL said the decision was taken hastily and without consultation at a time when the government was supposed to be working to position artistic creativity at the heart of the economy.

Mrs Cristina had said two months ago there were no plans on the cards for the school of music to be relocated or split up, PL spokesman for Youth and Culture Owen Bonnici said. In reply to a parliamentary question, she had said plans were in the pipeline for how the school would develop in future.

Dr Bonnici also criticised the paltry amount of funding given to the school, which has catered for 671 students each week over the past four years. The €230 per week, he said, was intended to purchase teaching equipment and office supplies and fund any maintenance work needed.

As a consequence of the lack of funding, the building housing the school was now in a perilous structural state.

In a reply issued yesterday afternoon, the ministry said Labour was criticising investments being made in the education sector for the benefit of Malta’s youngsters, as it had done on numerous occasions in the past.

It added that the splitting up of the school into numerous smaller centres would actually be beneficial to its students, who could now avoid having to travel into Valletta for their lessons and attend in their own localities instead.

The announcement that the school was to be overhauled and temporarily relocated was made by Ms Cristina in a press conference last Friday.

The move took the school’s teachers by surprise, with complaints that they had not been consulted, although there was agreement that the school needed an overhaul.