A three-year-old boy slipped out of a Skola Sajf centre unnoticed and was found walking along a busy main road in Fgura, the Education Ministry confirmed yesterday.
The youngster was found outside a nearby supermarket just off the arterial Hompesch Road after wandering out of the school on Monday.
He was meant to be in a class run by the State summer school but is believed to have gone missing while on his way to the bathroom.
Education Minister Evarist Bartolo could hardly contain his irritation yesterday, saying he was very disappointed that a young child left in the care of the State centre was allowed to leave unaccompanied.
“I am angry and upset, both as a father and a minister. This is something that you cannot defend. If it were my child I would be furious,” he said.
The Education Ministry has launched an internal inquiry to understand how the child was left unaccompanied and why the doors and gates of the school were left open.
“This is very worrying. I don’t know how the gates could have been left open. This is essential for the children’s safety,” he said, adding that measures had since been put in place to ensure the gates were closed at all times.
Asked for details on the incident, Mr Bartolo was reluctant to commit to an answer, saying that he had heard a number of conflicting versions of events.
I am angry and upset, both as a father and a minister
“I am gathering written statements from all those involved as we have conflicting versions of what happened. I am told many things happened but I couldn’t swear by any of them yet,” he said, adding that this further amplified his concern.
Asked how long the boy had been missing, Mr Bartolo said he was informed he was gone for some three minutes, but again declined to commit to that version of events.
This is the latest in a series of hiccups related to the Skola Sajf programme. Last month the summer school was postponed for a week after the Malta Union of Teachers ordered its members not to open classrooms due to staff shortages.
MUT president Kevin Bonello yesterday raised concerns that the incident was the result of persistent personnel problems.
“We have been saying this since the beginning: you need to have qualified people if you are going to run things properly,” he said.
In a statement, the Nationalist Party yesterday said it was shocked by what had happened.
PN Education spokesman Joe Cassar said the events were the result of poor organisation of the summer school programme.