Labour spokesman on education Evarist Bartolo said last Saturday that budget figures with respect to Mcast, as announced by the Minister of Finance, differed from the estimates. The Finance Minister had said that €21 million were to be spent on the college but the budget estimates mentioned only €17.5 million on capital and recurrent expenditure.
Speaking on the votes of the education ministry in Parliament, Mr Bartolo asked what had become of the Mcast collective agreement. Mr Bartolo asked whether there was any real consultation.
He accused the Prime Minister and the Education Minister of having been dishonest, incorrect and unjust in their criticism towards him on when he spoke of Mcast.
At the college, 600 young people have not yet started their ICT course. Mr Bartolo insisted this was not his fault because all he had done was bring to the attention of the police the fact that serious abuses had taken place in the choice of training centres for the courses. He said that it was his duty to call for inquiry and investigation whenever he came to know of abuses and irregularities.
The investigation being carried out by the police had nothing to do with the tender award, he said. The tendering process was held up because one of the companies that had tendered appealed the award as was its right.
At the opening of his speech, Mr Bartolo said the country's success depended on the provision of quality education. Serious consideration had to be given to childcare from zero to three years, an area which until now had been neglected. Serious consideration had to be given also to the kindergarten education and to strengthening the primary and secondary sectors.
One had to look at education from three perspectives: the rights of children, social justice and the economic angle.
The country lacked behind in certain sectors. Only 20 per cent of those going into post-secondary education are taking science subjects, this being the lowest rate in the EU. The country had fallen behind in the teaching of languages, mathematics, science, technology, art and culture. The country needed to create an economic, social and cultural climate to avoid a brain drain while it was important to seek to specialise elsewhere. Malta had fallen behind in the spheres of creativity, innovation, research and development.
The government's vision of 2015 for Malta to become a centre of excellence was illusionary when so many young people did not further their education. One had to look into the amount of dropouts from the Junior College, sixth forms and Mcast.
The Labour MP criticised the government for revising down the 2007 education budget estimates from €34 million to €17 million. The government had not given the university €4 million earmarked for this year. If this amount would not be forthcoming, the University would end 2007 with a €10 million deficit. The University needed much more funds if it had to continue to work on research and innovation. He called on the government to allow the University to organise a trust to get donations from the private sector to finance its research work.
Mr Bartolo asked whether the budget had made any allowance for the new collective agreement for University staff. The government was prepared to give out €3 million when the unions are asking for €5 million.
The Institute for Tourism Studies was still without legal status while the board had not been set up. He asked about the links between the Institute for Tourism Studies (ITS) and the University, the setting up of a hotel at the Martin Luther King complex, and the accreditation of its programmes. The ITS in Gozo, which was supposed to have started operating, was still lacking electricity and water supplies.
Mr Bartolo said the new utility rates would increase the University's expenses by €250,000. State and non-state schools would also suffer heavily. Progress had been registered on special needs education but much more needed to be done. The country needed to pass from a model based on charity to one based on rights.
He called on the government and the Church to help forge the merger between the Eden Foundation and Razzett tal-Ħbiberija in Marsascala. Mr Bartolo criticised the government for giving the budget allocation to one organisation only. He said this allocation should have been shared among the Eden Foundation, Razzett tal-Ħbiberija, Dar il-Kaptan and Equal Partners Foundation.
The education vote for capital expenditure and for maintenance and supplies had slipped by seven per cent during the last five years at a time when the country needed to beef up expenditure to sustain primary and secondary schools. The budget figures for the Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools, as mentioned by the Finance Minister, differed from what one found in the budget estimates. The government said that €13 million would be invested when the vote for budget estimates for next year amounted to €4.8 million.
He asked the minister to inform the House about the €4.4 million to be allocated for reform of the colleges. Where would this money come from? On e-learning, Mr Bartolo said that, while the government had estimated to spend €16 million for the years ahead, it only voted €750,000 for next year.
For quality education to succeed, teachers had to have better conditions of work. The MUT had registered an industrial dispute on the collective agreement signed last year. He called on the government to implement the 70 measures mentioned in the agreement.
Only 58 per cent of Gozitan candidates passed the Junior Lyceum entrance examination. The results showed that Cottonera, Xgħajra, Qrendi and Floriana were falling behind. Cottonera not only needed educational reform but an economic and cultural regeneration.
One of the good measures taken was to have a graduate teaching profession. He called for early intervention schemes for pupils who fail while strengthening the primary and secondary sectors.
Mr Bartolo called for a serious debate on the role and vocation of public broadcasting as it was still the voice of the party in government and was not reflecting what was going on in society.
Labour spokesman for youth and cultural heritage, Owen Bonnici said a balance had to be struck between tradition and innovation. There was a lot of concern among young people on unemployment: 30 per cent of the unemployed were under 29 years of age. There are many others working part-time or on a contract basis. Young people are also facing difficulties in becoming first-time home buyers. He called on the government not to increase financial burdens on first-home buyers.
People trying to have their own business are faced with harsh utility rates. Dr Bonnici called on the government to open properly-structured childcare centres to allow young mothers to return to the labour market even if for a few hours a day. There was a great gender imbalance when it comes to full-time employment. There were only 37 per cent of women in employment when compared to men. This is the lowest female employment participation rate in the EU.
He praised the budget measure on raising the age for drinking alcohol in an attempt to control binge drinking. The six youth centres promised by the government in last year's budget have not opened.
Dr Bonnici referred to the number of separations among young married couples and asked whether it was high time for one to consider allowing young couples to live together before getting married. He called for a serious debate on the matter.
The culture sector was the one which suffered the most in this budget because the deficit sky-rocketed from €80 million to €200 million. Last year Lm100,000 were allocated to the film industry. What had become of these funds? He asked, adding another Lm100,000, allocated to cultural and artistic development, were also not mentioned this year.
While visiting the book fair, an exhibitor had told him how satisfied he felt when he heard that a Maltese book had been found, on the shelves of a bookshop in New York. People were most keen to take our cultural sector seriously. Funds allocated to books were meagre: just six cents for every €100 allocated in the budget.
Regarding the proposed works at St John's Co-Cathedral, he proposed that the forthcoming environmental impact assessment should not be paid by the applicant. This, he said, would be a first but should become the norm in all cases of development.
Fort St Elmo and Fort St Angelo were in a terrible state and their restoration would cost €2.4 million and €15 million respectively.
Dr Bonnici asked if it was true that Heritage Malta wanted to sell part of the national costume collection.
Labour spokesman on sports, Chris Agius commented on the negative results obtained by Cottonera students in the Lyceum entrance examinations and said the opposition had long been drawing the government's attention to this state of affairs. He augured that the Cottonera development initiative would seriously tackle this problem. Absenteeism was increasing every year.
The government must offer incentives to encourage people to sit on sports committees. He called for more sports amenities and assistance because many organisations would be finding it difficult to continue their operations in the light of the new utility tariffs.
Nurseries should be assisted because many families could even pay membership fees.
He asked what were the gains from the sponsorships by the Malta Tourism Authority and Air Malta of two British football teams.
The sports complex at Kirkop, which had to be operational by 2007 was still not ready although it was now rumoured that this would be ready by next year. The sports complex for the north was still on the drawing board, Mr Agius said.