Timing of after-school activities queried

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech yesterday proposed coming up with a more efficient educational timetable to make it easier for parents to work.

He said it did not make sense for school to finish in the early afternoon and for all extracurricular activities such as catechism, football, ballet and drama to take place in the evening.

“This is not something for the Budget to tackle,” Mr Fenech admitted.

But, he said, it still had to be considered as a holistic measure that could attract women into the workforce while not having the adverse effects of having a society of children who were not brought up by their parents.

Mr Fenech was speaking during the first public consultation meeting on Budget 2011, where he said the focus this year would be to reduce the deficit (by at least one per cent) as well as sustain economic growth.

After a long presentation where he spoke about the government’s achievements in ensuring economic recovery and growth despite the international crisis, he was then faced by questions about why consumers and businesses were not yet reaping the benefits.

“The economy is like a plant which has long been trampled on. Now we’ve stopped stepping on it and it is growing slowly. But it is not yet a tree,” he said.

He pointed out that water and electricity tariffs would most likely not be reduced since oil was not getting any cheaper. However, the prices would probably remain stable thanks to a system of “locking”.

However, Mr Fenech said the priority of the government would be to increase efficiency in public expenditure, so as to continue investing without having to burden consumers and business with more taxes.

He said Malta was part of a problematic region, the Mediterranean, but was managing to shine a light of stability. Therefore, the country had to continue looking attractive and competitive rather than sending any alternative messages.

“We must remain off the radar,” he appealed, specifically about the importance of reducing the deficit and national debt.

During question time he was asked whether people were going to start feeling the effects of a recovered economy.

He replied by saying that people felt the recession after businesses and a similar lag was to be expected during the recovery process.

Mr Fenech was also reminded that certain previous Budget measures had not been implemented and micro and small businesses were still being largely ignored by the government.

Pensions, family-friendly measures and wage recovery were also touched upon during the discussion, but Mr Fenech pointed out that any measures funded by the government would need to be funded by taxpayers, such as through income tax.