Concern over 450 students who did not sit for 'O' levels

Labour leader Joseph Muscat this morning expressed concern over the fact that 450 Form V students opted not to sit for a single 'O' level exam this year.

Speaking at a political conference in Birkirkara, Dr Muscat said that these were 450 cries for help. In future, they could be the cry for help of 450 families.

It was in this context, he said, that Labour was promising training and work for all school-leavers.

The figure was revealed last week by Education Minister Dolores Cristina in reply to a parliamentary question. It constitutes some 10% of school leavers.

Labour, Dr Muscat said, wanted all young people to succeed. Those who did well at school would be encouraged to achieve further success, but those who did not do well also needed to be encouraged to improve their situation.

Such guarantees for young people, he said, were also being promoted in the European Parliament, and Simon Busuttil was among those who voted in their favour.

Dr Muscat also urged nursing students not to be discouraged after they were told that their pay would be reduced. A Labour government, he said, would guarantee and strengthen stipends. The present government was generous with its consultants but not with students, he said.

The Labour leader also criticised the chairman of the ETC, Sandra Sladden, for having claimed that the issue of precarious jobs was being exaggerated. This was symptomatic of the fact that the government was cut off from reality.  

At the opening of his speech Dr Muscat renewed Labour's commitment to hold social impact assessments before major decisions, and to provide homes for the community for people with disabilities after their parents die.

Dr Muscat said that this was the sort of legacy which a Labour government would want for itself, not a project such as the new Parliament building.

Referring to his visit to Dubai, Dr Muscat said a Labour government would continue to hold the government responsible for its promises on SmartCity. 7,000 jobs had been promised and they had not materialised - and the government was solely to blame. A Labour government would work with the investors to ensure that those jobs were really created. Indeed, Labour would encourage the investors to invest more in Malta, even before the election.

He also insisted that honest self-employed who faced a liquidity problem should not be jailed for not remitting VAT. They should be given time to recover in order to pay what was due. Imprisonment often meant making a bad situation worse. Keeping a man in prison was costly, and a businessman in prison often meant a closure of that business, with resultant lay-offs.

Dr Muscat also made fun of an e-mail sent by Austin Gatt and received by several Labour MPs, including himself, urging them to be missionaries for the PN and to spread its message because without them, the party could not win. What was missionary, he said, was how ministers helped themselves to a €500  a week raise.

He also referred to tomorrow's vote in parliament in a motion for the resignation of Richard Cachia Caruana, and said Labour would continue to demand accountability. It would also hold the prime minister to his yardstick of having clear, unconditional votes in parliament.