A group of mothers from Cospicua yesterday demanded an apology from TV presenter/producer Lou Bondi for the way Cospicua residents were portrayed in his TVM programme Bondiplus.

The mothers assembled in front of the town’s government primary school, which lately was in the spotlight as none of its students passed their Junior Lyceum admission examination. There were 32 eligible students in the school, 17 sat for the exam and no one passed.

The mothers told this newspaper that in reality, 25 children from Cospicua who did not attend the local school passed the exam.

They also pointed out that children who repeated their Year 6 attended their Year 7 at Kalkara primary school.

Others described how the Year 6 class of 2008 did not have a teacher for three months in the previous year after the teacher fell seriously sick and eventually died. They pointed out that their children’s Year 3 teacher had to repeat the syllabus which was supposedly covered during the previous scholastic year.

One mother said she felt that her child was not sufficiently prepared for the exam and she did not apply for her to sit for the exam.

They pointed out that they were not consulted prior to the airing of the programme which did not carry any of their opinions.

The group presented the media with a petition signed by some 300 people protesting against the reconstruction of social problems portrayed as role plays shown on Monday’s edition of Bondiplus.

A statement by “Bondiplus” said the re-enactments were all based on information supplied by the Cospicua school authorities. Through these authorities, the statement said, an attempt had been made to include the views of parents, but the attempt failed. It was not explained what the attempt involved.

The role plays, the mothers said, gave the impression to viewers that the families in Cospicua were all broken and that parents did not take care of their families.

They were particularly offended by the footage that showed a 14-year-old girl greet her pregnancy with the knowledge that she will start cashing in on social benefits. Worse still, they said, the impression was given that the people of Cospicua were keen on having children with disability in order to benefit from further social benefits.

One woman told this newspaper that social benefits were the last of her thoughts when she delivered a child with a disability. “The footage offended and really hurt me,” she said.

The footage, said the petition, was shown with the intent of continuing to vilify the people of Cospicua as a pregnant 14-year-old has nothing to do with exam results.

The petition conceded that there were social problems in Cospicua, however, said the petition, “we are responsible parents and are very much interested in our children’s education which, after all is the key to their future.”

The signatories appreciated the teachers’ “sterling work” and pledged their support.

“Thus, following the vilifying footage shown on Bondiplus, we ask the production team to make a public apology to us parents and the people of Cospicua and declare that the reconstructions, while giving a picture of the social realities existing in Cospicua and throughout the country, were exaggerated and offended the people of Cospicua,” ended the petition.

The mothers told this newspaper that another role play portrayed mothers unable to pay for school outings and purposely prevented their children from seeing their fathers.

One woman said that the school headmistress had told parents at the beginning of the scholastic year that expenses would be met should any of them not afford to pay for any outings.

They complained at the infrastructure of the building, which they said, sometimes lacked in hygiene.

The Bondiplus statement said the programme panel included speakers who had differing views about what was causing the educational problems at the school. As had always been done in the programme, it added, Bondiplus had given time for all these views to be expressed and the presenter had not taken any position in relation to them.