This week, and in the past weeks, we have seen our Education Minister give us a detailed briefing on the improvements in the education sector, so dear and important to all families in Malta. His long list of projects and work to upgrade various schools in so many localities has not been given enough publicity.

Malta tends to give more notice to the things which are undone. Maybe it’s right, as this spurs the man in charge to do more. However, credit must be given where it is due.

And in these past months, Dr Louis Galea did not lie idle. The publicity given was on the new school recently opened, which is of such a high standard that it is the envy of the opposition. They must be asking how come the nationalist government does these projects. Why does it have to be a Nationalist government that manages to re-open the MCAST, invent the Institute of Tourism Studies, push up the numbers at our university, and, not the Labour Party?

Here is the stark difference between two visions, two parallel political programmes that obviously can never meet. It is a pity that all the opposition does is criticise anything that is done, offering no concrete alternatives. On the other hand, the Nationalist government, one after another, pushes forward into the education system, making it more comfortable and attainable to all people in all walks of life.

The last example, out of many, that I repeat have not been given due publicity, is the tilting of the university stipends. Besides being the only country, I believe, that pays stipends to students, the scheme has been fine-tuned to the exigencies

of today, and more to the commercial global world of tomorrow.

Again, this has been done without losing sight of the social obligations this government has always upheld, and notwithstanding financial constraints on the economy brought about by the surging oil price, this government is committed to pump more money into the education sector.

Its present expenditure of over Lm8 million will not be reduced; rather, it will increase yearly until it reaches over Lm11 million. It will not cap entrance to the university. No doubt, many do remember the times of the Labour government where the numbers barely reached 1,000 at the university, when you had to have a sponsor to get in, or when the 10 points handicap affected so many people.

These are times gone by, but one has to remember where we started from in order to appreciate what we have today, what we must hold on to, improve and fine tune, for us to have a better youth in tomorrow’s Malta.

In short, as the government’s document shows, biex inti tghix ahjar (for you to have a better life).

The focus is on the int (you) in this title. It is because of the social conscience and the genuine willingness to help as many families as possible. The government makes so many sacrifices, for the ultimate benefit of all, whoever you are, wherever you come from.

It is a boost to see Gozitan students get a rise in their allowance, again acknowledging the position of a particular segment. After discussions and consultations, the government improved on their previous stipends.

The government saw the need of investing in preferred courses, as the country must gear up to change its commercial and industry base. It is also helping those families who find it hard to complete the studies of their children.

The above has all been done after many a meeting with all involved, reports that have been evaluated, talked about, and finally decided upon. Of course the opposition came out against it. What a difference in the student population of their times compared to the total student population of our times, with all the student opportunities in full swing!

The sheer thousands more, surely give a better opportunity for all of us to better our children, provide them with the necessary tools, a better environment to study in and the stable political climate to achieve their dreams.

Doing so is a feather in the cap of the Nationalist government. It has put its money where its mouth is, acting, deciding, for the better of all. I prefer this to some document promising us the world, without any direction.

Robert Arrigo is a Nationalist MP