The cost of the transport service to special schools was slightly reduced this year with the issuing of three tenders instead of one, the House Public Accounts Committee heard on Tuesday.
The committee was examining the National Audit Office findings in its 2007 annual report on the Ministry of Education, Youth and Employment.
Replying to questions by Labour MP Evarist Bartolo, Education Ministry officials said that there were currently 260 students attending three special schools, and the provision of a transport service for them was very expensive.
In a bid to reduce costs, three tenders, one for each school, were issued this year and the competition brought the prices down slightly.
Moreover, the ministry was using its own fleet to reduce expenses when taxis were needed.
Mr Bartolo asked whether arrangements could be made for a 14-year-old girl who had to go to school from Mount Carmel not to be taken to school with the hospital van. The officials said they were aware this was creating a stigma, not just for this girl but also for a number of others in the same situation, and they were seeing what arrangements could be made to rectify the situation.
Labour MP Alfred Sant asked whether the general school transport system had ever been evaluated. €1.6 million were being spent on school transport, a number of human resources were being dedicated to it and there were a lot of complications. Was it not the time for a root and branch review of the system, he asked.
The ministry officials said a report had been commissioned at the end of last year and this was being evaluated. They agreed the practice needed to be reviewed and internal brainstorming started some two weeks ago. Nothing was being excluded.
Dr Sant pointed out that for the system to improve, a root and branch exercise had to be carried out and one had to look into all possibilities. He did not think this should be done internally but externally.
The officials said that they did not exclude commissioning an external consultant to evaluate the system.