The primary school at the Archbishop’s Seminary in Tal-Virtu, which opened its doors for the first time this academic year, has 300 students who are expected to increase to 825 over the next few years.

Spread over 9,000 square metres, the school was built in the span of a year and includes 24 classrooms, an indoor play hall, music room, labs and auditorium, as well as a care centre for the children of employees. It is equipped with interactive white boards and Wi-Fi connectivity and environmentally friendly features such as intelligent lighting, insulation and solar heating.

The €8 million school, built as an extension to the seminary, was financed through a loan from APS Bank. It complements the existing secondary school and is part of the reform in Church schools aimed at easing the transition of students from primary to secondary school.

About 150 of the seminary’s 563 primary and secondary students come from St Augustine College, which is still awaiting a planning permit for the construction of its new primary school.

Fr David Cilia, the Headmaster of the Seminary, said there was widespread interest and strong support from the public, demonstrating a great deal of trust in the project.

The extension was the centre of a controversy earlier this year when about 200 Tal-Virtù and Rabat residents signed a petition calling on Archbishop Paul Cremona to stop the development. They even filed a judicial protest.

The permit was investigated by the planning authority’s auditor who slammed the process, describing the case officer’s assessment as “sheer incompetence or abuse”.

However, the planning authority exonerated from any wrongdoing the case officer and team manager who compiled the planning report and pointed out that the extension, as part of the education reform on primary-secondary transition, fell under a national policy.