Parents whose children were still being denied free school transport would not get any compensation, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said.

The government launched the scheme in September last year, providing parents of children attending State, Church and independent schools free transport. 

Hundreds of students were placed on a waiting list as the number of available vehicles was not enough to meet the demand. 

Although the scholastic year ends in a few weeks’ time, about 170 students remain on the list.

Asked about this and whether the government would be offering some form of compensation to parents who had to pay for the transport themselves, Mr Bartolo said no such plans were in the pipeline.

“We are not considering that for the moment. Our commitment is to provide publicly-funded transport,” he said.

Parents whose children are still on the waiting list and who spoke to Times of Malta on condition of anonymity, said they believed they had a right to some form of compensation since they had wanted to sign up for the scheme but could not.

They insisted that, by not being compensated, they were being discriminated against since other parents were saving money while they were still funding their children’s school transport.

About 170 students remain on the waiting list

“Parents who could not find free school transport, which was promised by the government, rightly deserve to be compensated for the time and the resources employed in driving children to and from school throughout this school year,” one parent insisted.

Fielding questions by the press after announcing that the free transport scheme would continued in the next scholastic year, Mr Bartolo said the government would be “doing all it can to provide” the service for all parents.

On the devices that were expected to be attached to students’ backpacks to let parents know their children had arrived safely, commonly referred to as FOBs, the minister said the scheme was still being tested with a pilot project now expected to be extended.

The permanent secretary at the Education Ministry, Frank Fabri urged parents to think ahead, insisting they apply as soon as application forms were available in the coming days.

He clarified that while in the case of State schools the government served as both the operator and regulator it could only ensure operators servicing Church and independent schools were following the rules.