Education Minister Louis Galea is holding meetings with hundreds of parents of boy students who will start their secondary education in September. The meetings are part of the preparatory process for the coming scholastic year when further steps will be taken to continue the reorganisation of government schools into colleges.

Yesterday Dr Galea met the parents of students from Qormi, Zebbug, Siggiewi and Luqa who in September will start their secondary education in the new school being built at Qormi. He has already met the parents of students from Mellieha, Mosta and Naxxar who start their Form One at the Sta Venera Junior Lyceum until the new school at Mosta is completed. Another meeting is with parents whose boys will be starting their secondary education at Sliema, and will next year move to the new school being built at Verdala in Cospicua.

Dr Galea told parents of the boys who will be going to the new Qormi school that this would be the first time that all boy students from primary schools in their town will go directly to the new secondary school. In future, a new secondary school would be built for girls from the same schools which form this college.

The college is so far made up of the kindergarten centres and primary schools of Luqa, Qormi, Siggiewi and Zebbug, and the secondary schools Dun Karm Psaila of Zebbug and Guze Galea of Qormi, and the MA Vassalli (Handaq) Junior Lyceum and Maria Regina Junior Lyceum of Hamrun.

The education sector started being reformed two years ago, Dr Galea said, and there is a new education law in effect today. One of the foundations of the reform is the setting up of autonomous colleges incorporating primary schools and two secondary schools. All schools in Malta and Gozo have been assigned to 10 colleges in all. At present applications are being processed to appoint the 10 principals who will be running the colleges in Malta and Gozo.

MCAST too will have a new campus, in a Lm50 million project which includes the demolition of St Joseph Junior Lyceum, for the space created to be incorporated as part of MCAST.