A Labour government will not only keep the stipend system but improve it for those who still struggle to continue studying, according to Labour MEP Edward Scicluna.
We would like to see more help going to those kids for whom the stipends are not enough
“First of all, we are guaranteeing that the system, as it stands now, will remain. That is for sure. But we are also seriously considering proposals to strengthen the system,” Prof. Scicluna, who is touted to be Joseph Muscat’s choice for Finance Minister, told The Times.
“The how and when will be announced in the manifesto,” he said, when pressed to say how the stipend system could be improved.
He said the Labour Party was considering ways of providing more help to those families who still struggled to send their children to the Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology and to the University.
“We would like to see more help going to those kids for whom the stipends are not enough... For some families, the current stipend system is too low. In some families, the opportunity cost is still too high and kids are being sent to work.
“We want to see more students at the University and Mcast. That is the end result. We will strengthen the system to attract more students from low-income families,” he said.
Prof. Scicluna, an economist, has often spoken about stipends as a burden on the taxpayer that needs to be reformed.
Dr Muscat has insisted that stipends would not be touched and, if anything, they would be strengthened, a pledge the Labour leader repeated yesterday during a tour of the University. He described this as a “vow without compromises”.
The Times had asked Prof. Scicluna about the subject in February in connection with a feature about the sustainability of stipends.
“Sustainability may mean different things to different people,” he said, pointing out that various government appointees, like the Rector and the former Central Bank Governor, had seen stipends as public expenditure that could be used more productively.
“The reality is that, despite our stipends system, our participation rate in tertiary education is still half the median rate (40 per cent) in the EU... If we are losing 37 per cent of secondary students on their way to their getting a proper school-leaving certificate, and many others are not getting past their first year in tertiary education, we should realise there are problems elsewhere.”
Last November, Dr Muscat had also hinted at an increase in stipends but later warned this would only happen if the economic situation improved.
“Stipends will be secured under Labour. For now, our commitment is crystal clear not to touch this system which has delivered... If the financial situation allows us to do so, we will actively consider increasing and spreading the reach of stipends,” a party spokesman had said.
Dr Muscat’s predecessor Alfred Sant, had also promised to retain the stipend system before the 1996 election, only to back down on the promise once elected, saying the system was unsustainable.