A garden located outside the Cospicua primary school will be converted into a recreational area for schoolchildren and children living in the area, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said.

The plan was to complete this next summer, Infrastructure Minister Joe Mizzi said adding that he also planned to covert the parking lot just outside the school into a play area after building an underground car park on the same site.

The two ministers visited the works at the primary school that falls under the Santa Margerita College. Works include maintenance such a painting and changing of drainage pipes.

The works at the school form part of a €15 million allocation that will go towards maintaining the 107 government schools over the next three years.

This summer works on some 94 schools will start. So far the school that required the most works was the Santa Clara College in St Andrews that was being converted into a co-ed school.

Mr Bartolo added that at the moment the ministry was in the process of regrouping the schools falling under specific colleges.

This was being done to ensure that there was a better balance in terms of student population and to avoid concentrations of social problems within specific colleges. Proposals had been sent to heads of schools, college principles and directors for consultation that comes to a close on Thursday.