The government is usually always ready to pounce on whatever the opposition says. It uses the Department of Information as a means through which it replies to the frequent statements made by Labour Party (PL) spokesmen. Very often, it downplays what the opposition says or denies claims that are made in what appears to be a damage control exercise that extends from the OPM down to all parliamentary secretariats. It’s part of the political game.

So it is rather strange that the Education Ministry has remained silent after The Malta Independent carried two front page stories last week on the fact that the price of school uniforms, books, fees and other educational material is on the rise. One of the stories contained comments made by Labour Spokesman for Education, Evarist Bartolo. These two stories were followed by another in The Malta Independent on Sunday yesterday, but the ministry still remained silent.

Who knows, maybe they’re on holiday too, like teachers and students. TMID did manage to get hold of the ministry’s communications coordinator and asked for a comment about the stories carried on Thursday and Friday, but none was received. It seems that the government wants to ignore the issue.

This silence means one thing – that a much-publicised stunt to curb the rising costs that are being faced by parents was nothing more than a public relations exercise that has failed miserably.

Last year, the Office of Fair Trade had called on the government to investigate the many complaints that were being received from parents and the Finance Ministry had later issued recommendations in an attempt to cut the costs.

And, here we are, a year later, with the same problems, which have grown in proportion too, considering the inflation this country has had to face in the past 12 months. With so many families struggling to make ends meet due to the added costs of water, electricity, gas and fuel (just to mention a few government-induced extra costs), having to pay more and more for items that are necessary for their children’s education is adding on to the everyday burdens each of them has to face.

Some schools – Church and private in primis, but government schools are not immune either – seem to enjoy inventing new ways to extract more and more money out of the pockets of their students’ parents. And it does not happen only every summer, when the preparations for the coming scholastic year are under way. It also happens during the scholastic year, when every excuse is found for the schools to make more money.

A E2 fee here and a E5 fee there add up to a substantial amount over the nine months of school (including the Christmas and Easter holidays), and most parents would not want to deprive their son and daughter of the school event invented as a fund-raising activity - because, yes, unless those E2 are paid, schools are spiteful enough to leave children out.

TMID has received several complaints from parents demanding better control and, most of all, a reduction of expenses. Why, for example, should books be changed from one year to another so that they cannot be passed on from sibling to sibling?

Quoting from a report drawn up by the University of Malta, Labour spokesman Evarist Bartolo said that inflation in education shot up from 0.5 per cent in 2005 to a whopping 9.3 per cent in December last year. School uniforms, books and stationery in Malta are more expensive than in the rest of the European Union, he said.

And what is the government, specifically the Education Ministry, doing about it?

It remains silent.