The pre-fabricated classrooms which are being used at the St. Paul’s Bay Primary School cost €196,236.02 and were bought way back in January 2016, information tabled in Parliament on Monday by Education Minister Evarist Bartolo revealed.

Bartolo was asked in two separate Parliamentary Questions by PN MP and Education spokesperson Clyde Puli on how many such pre-fabricated classrooms are being used, in which schools they are being used, whether there was the intention to use more classrooms of this type, whether they were bought or rented, and, in the case of the former, what the process used was. 

Information tabled by Bartolo read that only the St. Paul’s Bay primary school is making use of these pre-fabricated classrooms and that there were 10 such classrooms being used in total.

The information further showed that these classrooms were bought in January 2016 after the Foundation Tomorrow’s Schools (FTS) obtained five quotations from different companies in December 2015.  The most advantageous of these offers was that which was submitted by Bava Holdings Limited and which amounted to a total cost, including VAT, of €196,236.02,

Bartolo said in his answer that the FTS had, before making the purchases, obtained approval from the government’s Contracts Department as per the public procurement regulations.

He also said that these types of classrooms are used as a resource for when there is a substantial increase in population in a short period of time.  Bartolo said that his ministry’s policy remains that of building new schools, and added that present schools will also be refurbished or extended according to necessity. 

Families in St Paul’s Bay and Qawra have been waiting since 2015 for the opening of a new State primary school, and in response to a separate parliamentary question, Bartolo confirmed that the new school would open its doors to students for the first time in September 2019, at the beginning of the next scholastic year.