The archdiocese’s communications officer (The Sunday Times, October 31) states that the Church school expansion project is “being financed by the individual schools through bank loans”.

Presumably, Church schools themselves are facing the same financial difficulties as the Archdiocese which – through its own recent admission – is almost bankrupt.

If both are in financial difficulty, why did they decide to go ahead with a €20 million spending project while also forcing the government to commit to pumping millions of euros per year to cover the running costs of the new schools?

On what basis is the government funding 15.2 per cent of the cost of building of the new Church schools when doing so would also steer away a large number of students from state schools which were recently built at considerable expense with taxpayers’ money?

And why should the government refund VAT paid on such new buildings?

To add insult to injury, the archdiocese admits that bank loans are to be “paid off through donations and other fundraising activities”. Hence, it will be taxpayers and church-goers who will foot the bill for this senseless act.

There is a public accountability issue at stake since the Church cannot expect to turn to the government and Church-goers and request funding for a project which they cannot justify as being for the common good, especially when the schooling capacity in Malta is more than adequate.

The archdiocese also claims that the school expansion project is justified, as “for every placing in a Church school, three applications are received”.

This argument does not hold water if one addresses the issue on a holistic, national level. Children who are refused entry into a Church school are still able to attend other schools in Malta, and this fact backs my original argument that there is no need for further primary schools since the country has sufficient infrastructural capacity in place.

In conclusion, the archdiocese indicates that Church schools currently cater for almost 36 per cent of the student population. That is probably one of the highest percentages of Church-run schools by reference to other schools in any country.

Malta is a secular country, and while I fully support the right of the Church to run its own schools, I hope there will be more people and institutions who question this act of folly on the part of the Church to throw away millions of euro down the drain for an unjustified spending spree.