University students who are repeating an academic year will still be getting their stipend, the Prime Minister announced this morning.

He said that although this had not been promised by the government in the Budget or the Labour Party in the electoral programme, this was a government which heeded concerns and was prepared to be flexible.

This measure, he said, was in addition to the promise to give the stipends to those who repeated a year at Mcast or the Junior College.

The stipend, he said, was seen as being a tool to encourage students to continue to study, even if they fell as one hurdle.

Stipends would continue to be increased, but, he stressed, there should be no abuse and students had to attend their lectures.

Earlier in his address, at an activity of the Labour Youths, Dr Muscat said the government would shortly publish its Digital Strategy as part of preparations to make all government services available online.

He said the country was not doing badly in this sector, but much more needed to be done.

The major step forward would come with the distribution of the e-ID cards, which have started to be rolled out. The new cards would have a secure chip which would make it possible for all the people to fully utilise government services on-line, including payments.

Replying to questions, Dr Muscat referred to the comments made last week by the head of Cospicua Prime School about truancy and also a report in The Sunday Times of Malta that parents are ignoring fines for truancy. The government, Dr Muscat said, was determined to ‘save’ these children and pull them away from the road of poverty and possibly crime. He said he was also noted the concerns made about professionals being accomplices by issuing sickness certificates which were unwarranted. This too had to stop.