Gozo sixth form students have complained that they are being kept in the dark over the ‘temporary’ relocation of the Barts medical campus to their premises.
Speaking to the Times of Malta, a number of students vented their frustrations over the situation at their school, claiming that they are not being given any replies over their future.
“We first learnt about Barts using our school premises from the Times of Malta,” a 17-year-old student from Victoria said.
“We have nothing against having foreign students here, but we need to know how this will affect our studies,” he said.
“We are particularly concerned about the lack of space. We already have limited facilities – particularly the library, laboratories and other amenities. No one is telling us what is going on, and all we hear is that this was decided by the ministry in Malta,” a 16-year-old girl from Munxar said.
According to the students, it seems that Barts medical students will be using a whole floor of the old block of the Gozo sixth form, which is to be refurbished by the government to be used by the private institution.
They said all the Gozitan students would be transferred to the new block, built recently but which, they claimed, “is not adequate to host all of them”.
“The space is too small to accommodate all of us, and we have certain concerns over its safety, as it has only one staircase and no alternative route for emergencies,” one student said.
Students pointed out that they have already mentioned this illegality to the authorities but received no response.
Students have written to Education Minister Evarist Bartolo about these concerns but had not received any reply by the time of writing.
The Times of Malta also asked the Education Ministry whether Barts would be paying any rent for use of the facilities; how much taxpayers would be forking out for the refurbishment of the facilities; and for how long Barts would be using the ‘temporary’ facilities.
No replies were received at the time of going to print.
Last month, this newspaper reported that after missing the September 2016 deadline for the state-of-the-art campus, Barts decided to postpone the opening of its medical school by a year. According to an agreement signed by the government with Vitals Global Healthcare, as part of a 30-year concession to run public hospitals, the new campus was to be built for Barts by Vitals on the site of the Gozo Hospital.
However, work has yet still to start, and the campus is not expected to be ready by this September when Barts intend to open their new medical courses.
As a temporary solution, Barts confirmed that the government had offered them the use of the Gozo sixth form until their new campus had been completed.
The infrastructural works to transform a section of the sixth form to the high standards re-quired by Barts will be paid from public coffers.
Barts students will pay €35,000 a year in tuition fees.