The Mariam Al Batool School, Malta's only Muslim school, will continue to operate, offering education to children in the kindergarden and primary levels, Education Minister Evartist Bartolo told Carm Mifsud Bonnici (PN)in parliament this evening.

However, Mr Bartolo said, middle-school and secondary level students will have to move to other schools because the present complex is too small and does not conform with health and safety standards.

Mr Bartolo said that the school governors had approached the government which willing offered them money to build an extension. But permission had to be given by the Libyan government as the land belongs to it and is therefore termed as “diplomatic”. This permission was not forthcoming.

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The minister said the government left the earmarked sum to the school to cater for its expenses. He said that relations between the government and the school authorities and parents were excellent, he said.

The school was set up in November 1977 on the initiative of Imam Mohammad El Sadi, in his capacity as president of the Maltese Islamic Welfare Fund. It is housed at the Islamic Centre, in Corradino, which also houses the main mosque on the island.

The school, which is licensed by the Education Department and follows the national curriculum with an Islamic ethos, caters for children in kindergarten, primary and, as from 2007, also secondary level.

It received subsidies from the government to the tune of €300,000 a year. The government had granted the school interest-free loans in 2011 and 2012, amounting to €200,000 each, without requesting any guarantees.