Education Minister Evarist Bartolo this morning blamed the Foundation for Educational Services for the Skola Sajf delay fiasco, insisting that the foundation painted a rosy picture when things were, in fact, not OK.

The state-run summer school service was delayed by a week after it turned out that the scheme was hugely understaffed and classes of up to 60 students were going to be supervised by just one teacher.

Speaking to journalists, Mr Bartolo said there were positive developments and, until this morning, only a few centres remained understaffed.

The Education Minister assured parents that every centre will be fully manned and have its own coordinator. “We will try to open them before next Monday but only if we are sure that all centres are fully manned.”

Mr Bartolo said the Ministry was mulling whether to open the centres gradually or wait until all centres are fully manned and open all of them at once.

When asked if he would be shouldering political responsibility, Mr Bartolo said he had already done so by apologising to parents.

In reply to questions by this paper, the Education Minister denied that there was no consultation when Skola Sajf was transferred from under the Directorate for Educational Services to the Foundation for Educational Services and insisted that, despite the move, the FES had enough time to organise the scheme. “They had two months. Two months should have been enough to contact people and get things going. To be fair it was a big challenge organising Skola Sajf for such a number of students. But that in itself means that preparations should have started immediately.”

Mr Bartolo said the 10,800 students that applied created a demand for more than 700 teachers. But teachers were contacted late. To make matters worse, some 200 teachers resigned from Skola Sajf. The Education Minister said no one can blame them since they knew they were going to be stretched thin. “There is no doubt that the Foundation for Educational Services failed to do its job properly.”

Mr Bartolo criticised the FES for not speaking up and saying that the scheme was understaffed. “I prefer working with people who say things as they are. If there s a problem they should say so and we will solve it together. They told me that everything was OK and left things until the very last minute. That is why we ended up in such a ridiculous situation,” said the Minister, who insisted that parents should not have been told about the delay so late on Sunday evening.

When asked how things could have gone this wrong when Skola Sajf has been organised successfully for a number of years, Mr Bartolo said there is no comparison between this year and previous years. “You cannot compare the service that was being offered and, besides, demand was never so high.” Mr Bartolo said Skola Sajf and Klabb  3-16 were two different entities that had different rules and fees and it made sense to amalgamate them.

In reaction to comments by MUT President Kevin Bonello, who described the situation as disastrous, Mr Bartolo said the teacher’s union’s comments were justified. “Mr Bonello was right in saying so. He was referring to the situation at the time. How can you have one coordinator for six centres, or one teacher taking care of 30+ students.”

Mr Bartolo said the Ministry was taking up the MUT’s recommendation and will investigate what happened. “I have no doubt that when we inform him on the recent updates Mr Bonello’s reaction will be somewhat different.”