Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday insisted stipends were an investment and that governments should not be stingy when it comes to education.
Speaking as a guest on Net TV’s programme Qalb il-Familja, broadcast from Villa Arrigo, Naxxar, Dr Gonzi spoke of the University’s record complement of 11,000 students.
Dr Gonzi walked on set to a warm welcome from his programme’s audience – made up of some 50 or so senior citizens and several PN women candidates – and to the jazzy tune of You’re Everything, played live by pianist Godwin Lucas.
Focusing on education, the Prime Minister encouraged his audience to look at the UK’s bleak situation. “You all know someone who is studying in the UK – university fees have gone up and the number of students in the UK has gone down by 40,000,” he said.
Malta needs to raise a generation of professionals, he stressed, at the risk of them being snapped up to work abroad.
“And that is why education will also stay as the protagonist for the coming five years,” he said to warm applause.
Later, the Prime Minister, together with Tourism Minister Mario de Marco, toured Hotel Cavalieri in St Julian’s.
In his address to the hotel staff, he pointed out that, according to recent figures from the National Statistics Office and Eurostat, employment in Malta increased by two per cent and now stood at 60 per cent; the highest ever. The increase, he said, was attributable to an increase in the participation rate of Maltese women in the labour market which has gone up from 38.6 per cent in 2008 to 44 per cent.
“That is very positive as we’re inching closer to the European median,” Dr Gonzi said.
Asked by hotel staff what the outlook for next year’s tourism industry looked like, Dr Gonzi said the indications for 2013 were “very encouraging”.
“Especially since in this day and age holidays are no longer being planned a year ahead but from a laptop in a kitchen some two weeks before,” he said.
He thanked the staff for their positive interaction with tourists when they stayed at the hotel: “Malta has to be an experience like nowhere else.”