Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced that in the coming weeks the government will be launching a call for expression for a tender that would see an abandoned school in Mtarfa be restored to a new international school, offering the IB system rather than the SEC system.
Speaking at a political activity this morning, Dr Muscat spoke of a growing problem where an increasing number of foreign workers are being attracted to the island but have run into the obstacle of many schools not being able to accommodate their children due to space.
Many of such expats and diplomats prefer their children to learn through the IB system or wish to send their kids to a private school, possibly due to the more prevalent use of English rather than Maltese.
The issue was underscored by the news that EASO, an EU refugee entity in Malta will be increasing its workforce from 168 to 500+ workers. In addition, Malta has tendered to win the European Medicine’s Agency headquarters contract which would see loads more people coming to the island.
Turning to successes and failures over the past four years, Dr Muscat explained that the foundations of what has just been built under this current government focus on ensuring that every person willing and able to work has the opportunity to do so. He said the next phase, which would come to fruition should there be another PL electoral victory, would be to ensure that the public has not just job opportunities, but valuable career opportunities which bring prosperity, allow people to leave something for their families and increase the overall quality of lives.
Dr Muscat proudly said that this government has achieved two things which many other countries across the world have been struggling with, including Malta under the previous PN government, that of ensuring fiscal and social responsibility in tandem.
He reminded the audience how under the leadership of the PN it would often be said that politicians would love to increase benefits and subsidies to the less fortunate, or provide more social housing, however doing so would create huge problems for the public finances.
“Ask yourselves, was there a single social policy enacted under the PN government between 2008 and 2013? Any pension increases? Tapering in benefits? No. In their last five year term, the managed to increase public debt without giving anything back to the people,” he said to loud applause.
“We have made mistakes, some small and some not so small, but if you weigh out the pros and cons, you will see that this government has overall increased the wellbeing of the country.
“Malta has started to leave an inheritance for its people and is not just taking from the people. Over the past four years every single tax payer has had their taxes decrease and minimum wage earners have seen their earnings increase. These results were not achieved over a period of 20 years, but we have managed all this in just four years.”
“Let’s form a new middle class, and understand that work is the first priority of every person in the world, and at the same time we are engaging in social responsibility,” he said.