Since September 2005, the Form 1 students who live in the north of Malta and attend the M.A. Vassalli Boys’ Junior Lyceum at Handaq have been sent to an annexe at Adelaide Cini School at Hamrun. As parents of these boys, we were quite happy about this since our children, who are in Form 1, will not be mixing with the older students of up to Form 5. However, we did have a serious problem. The school transport.

The school at Handaq and the annexe at Hamrun start at 8.30am. Before the start of the scholastic year, we were told – during a meeting with the headmaster – that the children can be picked up by the school transport up to a maximum of one hour before the school starts. This means that the children could be picked up not earlier than 7.30am.

However, the children who live at Bugibba and Qawra are being picked up at about 6.45am, one hour and 45 minutes before the school starts.

This means that these 11- and 12-year-old Form 1 boys have to leave home at about 6.35am to walk to the pick-up point so as to make sure not to miss the bus. We get even more annoyed when we see the older students attending the school at Handaq being picked up after 7.30am.

Once the Form 1 boys are picked up from Qawra, they are then taken on a trip round Xemxija, Mellieha, Manikata and Zebbiegh, before finally arriving at Hamrun at approximately 8am. One hour and 45 minutes to go from Qawra to Hamrun – a trip which usually takes about 20 minutes.

I should add that apart from Wednesday, these boys finish school at 3.15pm and arrive home at about 4pm.

Then they have to do their homework and are expected to find some time for studying. At 8pm, they have to start preparing to go to bed because they have to wake up before 6am.

They might as well start going to work because it would be less stressful. These boys are also encouraged to take part in some kind of sports so as not to sit around all day and also get to meet some friends. I really think they would like to go and play football every day if they had the time.

Apart from the inconvenience of having to wake up before 6am, many children are arriving at school feeling car-sick, so they have to provide a medical certificate to allow them to sit at the front of the coach.

We have been complaining about the situation to the school and to the Education Department from the beginning of the scholastic year, especially since we had been told that a mini-bus was to be provided for the Qawra students which would take them straight to Hamrun.

In fact, the Education Department had made arrangements for two mini-buses and a bus to cater for the different localities, but the company which has the contract to provide this transport decided to group the students of the north areas together and pick them up using only one large coach. The Education Department naturally knows about this change because I was told by the department that the company which provides the coaches is being paid 25 per cent less for this arrangement than it would if different mini-buses were provided for the different localities.

During one of several phone calls to the Education Department, I was told that the department was powerless against the transport companies because they would tell the department that that is the best they can do and the department can either “take it or leave it”. When I called the Education Department again on 22 March, I was told “we are trying to make arrangements so that the coach first picks up the boys at Mellieha at 7am and then collects the boys at Qawra at about 7.15am, which would solve all the problems”.

I hope that something is done to remedy the situation because the parents of these children feel that the Education Department is taking this problem too lightly.

Manuel Cassar

St Paul’s Bay