In no other sectors was the government’s success more evident than in education and jobs, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said this morning.
Speaking at a political conference which focused on education, Dr Gonzi said the government had always acknowledged that the key to the country's future lay in having a well trained workforce which was able to create and take opportunities for the creation of wealth.
Under PN governments, he said when speaking in Qawra, the University population had grown several times over, and this government had also opened a wealth of other post-secondary courses, including Mcast and the Institute of Tourism Studies..
In contrast, the PL was putting its own interests before the country, to the extent that Labour had said it would vote against the Education Act, currently in parliament. For Labour, politics had become a game. But for the government, the future of Malta's young was a priority, and not a game, Dr Gonzi said.
The PN wanted the best education for Malta's children, also because that translated into the best future for the country.
Dr Gonzi said the government was spending €1.4 million on education every day and building at least one new school every year. The government had invested heavily in IT in classrooms and also achieved new standards in inclusive education as evidenced by the work of Learning Support Assistants.
All this was money well spent.
Other speakers in the discussion were Education Minister Dolores Cristina and Karl Grech, former president of the KSU. The latter said that PL declarations ultimately showed that it was 'not that cool' to be Labour. There were doubts about Labour's commitment to stipends, he said, and its policies on education were vague.
Mrs Cristina said the sharp increase in the number of students in post-secondary education was shown by the fact that the government needed to extend the Upper Secondary School and also create new premises and campuses for the ITS and Mcast. The government, she said, would also continue to focus strongly on the vocational sector, particularly on the skills society needed, such as care for the elderly. Parents had peace of mind about the education of their children only when the PN was in government, Mrs Cristina said.
Near the end of his address Dr Gonzi appeared to be referring to the ongoing ACTA debate and criticism made of the government. The PN, he said, was the party which brought computers to Malta when others wanted to keep them out. It introduced mobile phones when others were scared of them, and it was the one which defended the right for freedom of expression.