Updated: 'Anxiety' over lack of information on schools closure - Bartolo

Updated - Adds Education Ministry's comments

The Ministry of Education is planning to close down 13 schools in the coming years, but parents and teachers have still not been informed of alternative arrangements, Opposition education spokesman Evarist Bartolo said in a statement this afternoon.

Such lack of consultation, he said, was creating anxiety and demoralisation.

Mr Bartolo said plans were in hand to close the girls' secondary schools at Cospicua, Tarxien, Hamrun, St Andrew's and Rabat as well as the boys' secondary schools in Vittoriosa, Floriana, Marsa, Zebbug, Gzira, Mtarfa, Birkirkara and Paola.

Mr Bartolo said no one was being told where the new schools to replace them would be.

He said that over the past years, there had been cases where two schools replaced an old one while no new schools replaced other schools which were in disrepair.

It was worrying, he said, that secondary schools were continuing to grow in an exaggerated manner and teachers and students were becoming anonymous numbers instead of an educational community of people who knew each other.

The Labour MP also complained that work on a new syllabi for secondary school students in the wake of the removal of the Junior Lyceum exams, had fallen back. Teachers' training as part of this change had also fallen back, he said.

EDUCATION MINISTRY'S REPLY

The Ministry of Education said that as new schools are built, old schools can be phased out.

It said that Mr Bartolo was misleading the public when he stated that no one was being told where the new schools to replace them would be.

After extensive and in depth consideration of the available spaces, the facilities needed, population trends and other relevant factors, the Ministry of Education and the Education Directorates finalised the composition of secondary schools. As from next year, a number of schools will start to be phased out, as the new schools started to be built and delivered, the ministry said.

"No school will close suddenly, but there will be a gradual phasing out of the new and phasing in with new buildings or with refurbished schools."

The ministry said that information sessions have already started and Mr Bartolo was "more than aware" that individual sessions had been held with each College Council of Heads so as to inform them of the changes that would start to be implemented in their College. Heads of School were now informing their staff of the changes that would occur as from next scholastic year. Meetings with parents would be held in the coming weeks. Students would also be informed and prepared for the changes by the school’s career guidance team.

The ministry pointed out that for many years there had been schools with a student population of over 1,000. This would no longer be the case in the future.

"It is clearly understood that student population cannot be too large so as to keep student personal contact, while on the other hand schools cannot be too small. Small schools do not offer a healthy environment in the secondary sector, as this would affect setting and subject options would be too limited. Small schools would also necessitate more sharing of human resources, mainly teachers, causing great discomfort to staff having to travel from one school to another. Therefore, it is crucial that we strike the right balance for the benefit of all concerned," the ministry said,