Schoolchildren from 38 schools today presented a motion in parliament seeking to improve their quality of life, calling on the country’s leaders to take heed of their suggestions and support them by taking concrete action in their quest to better their quality of life in their respective school communities.

The motion was read at the beginning of the session by schoolchildren as part of the annual EcoSkola parliamentary session, this year being the 10th one, in the presence of MPs from both sides of the House and Speaker Anglu Farrugia. A vote was taken and the motion approved.

The declaration wasn’t a spontaneous one but was formed during a Young People’s Summit held in March where a number of workshops were conducted. The summit was sponsored by HSBC’s Water Programme: Catch the Drop Campaign.

MPs present included Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil, former tourism minister Karmenu Vella, Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia, Environment Minister Leo Brincat, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo, Gozo Minister Anton Refalo, former parliamentary secretary Franco Mercieca, Parliamentary Secretary Michael Falzon, Civil Rights Minister Helena Dalli, shadow health minister Claudio Grech, shadow energy minister George Pullicino, shadow environment minister Charlo Bonnici, shadow Gozo minister Giovanna Debono, shadow education minister Joe Cassar, Clyde Puli, Ryan Callus, and Robert Cutajar.

All speakers were allocated three minutes each to say their bit.

In his opening remarks, Speaker Farrugia said that the new parliament, the works of which are nearing completion, is adopting a number of eco friendly measures, including methods to preserve the heat along with the installation of ‘green’ cooling systems.

Students suggested that there existed a need for more awareness campaigns to promote cleaner energy methods while also pointing out that street lights should be placed further apart from each other as to reduce consumption and replaced with ‘intelligent’ lighting systems.

Other suggestions included the distribution of LEDs to homes and schools and that gadgets should be introduced to monitor energy consumption.

“Facebook should be used to promote activities and issues in order to replace the heavy amount of flyers (junk mail) distributed to households,” one student said.

Another student suggested that more recycling bins  be provided to schools while bring in sites should be made more accessible to persons with a disability by building ramps close to the sites, while another said that the government should reward those who are separating waste.

One student said that he was concerned since parents are having to work harder than in the past, some even having to attend to two jobs, to cope with the everyday expenses, which lessened communication between parents and children.

Noise pollution was another issue which was raised, including noise emitted from vehicles and swearing in public.

In his three minute intervention, Dr Muscat said that normally politicians hardly agree on certain issues but on issues such as the environment, such as the ones raised by students present during today’s session, both sides of the House agreed.

“You can be the catalysts of change,” Dr Muscat told those present, “by speaking out where you feel things are not being done right”.

Dr Busuttil said that “we do not live by ourselves but form part of a society and therefore we should all adopt the same measures and do our part to help care for the environment.

“It is not enough speaking about the environment but we need to take action and this can only be done by working together and give our contribution towards the environment,” he said.

Dr Pullicino the PN main spokesperson for the environment and energy, said that the EcoSkola initiative was kick started back in 2003.

He said that some children in other countries did not have the luxury of travelling short distances to get from one place to another and did not enjoy the comforts other children have.

Mr Pullicino stated that the country spent more than 300 million euros to better the quality of our seas.

“This did not happen by chance but through the investment of millions of euros,” he pointed out.

He called on the government to implement its pledge and distribute water flow restrictors to reduce the flow in households in the same way a PN government provided LEDs free of charge to households during the previous legislature.

Mr Pullicino’s remarks did not go down too well with Minister Bonnici who said that he did not feel that today’s session should be used to create a political debate.

He explained to students present that parliament is a place where politicians take certain decisions however pointed out that parliament was not the only place where suggestions can me made since students also had a voice to air their concerns and views as well.

Dr Bonnici emphasised that our heritage should be safeguarded, pointing out that the government was doing its utmost to safeguard historic sites, calling on school teachers and students to pinpoint historic sites which they feel need attention. The suggestions would in turn be passed on to the government by the participating schools to review.

Mr Brincat said the fact that waste management topped the agenda of students was a great satisfaction for the government. He highlighted that politicians have a lot to learn from students, adding that he would continue to hear out their future suggestions.

He announced that one of the suggestions made by students today would be put into practice, by creating a blog for students to air their views and criticize what they deem fit on issues tied to waste management.

Dr Cassar meanwhile said that when he was young the word eco did not even exist let alone a parliamentary session dedicated to students to air their suggestions in a bid to improve our quality of life.

Education Minister noted that EcoSkola was a movement which was moving on and maturing.

He said that students should be heard all the time and not when we felt like.

Dr Bartolo pointed out that a number of students were spending a great amount of time on Facebook instead of taking regular walks in the countryside.