The Forum Zghazagh Laburisti should be the first to access the Matsec website http://www.home.um.edu.mt/matsec/ to check whether or not the re-sits will be held in September, the education ministry said yesterday. It seemed they either have not yet done so, or wanted to mislead.

The ministry said that though there had been various recommendations in the Matsec report, the recommendation about the re-sits had not been accepted by the government and had never been implemented.

The minister, the statement added, had already given an assurance that the government would never accept recommendations which could hinder students. Students should not accept what the MLP was trying to make them believe, they should check the facts and records of the two parties in government.

The FZL were today complaining about the stipends, the ministry said. Where were they when the Labour government had sharply reduced the stipends? The facts were that on the pretext of a hole in finances, the Labour government had in 1997 drastically reduced the stipends and told the students to take out loans.

Under Labour a university student would get Lm1,800, today a student received Lm2,440, and Lm4,240 if it was a Gozitan student, the ministry said.