Minister for Education and Employment Owen Bonnici visited St Ġorġ Preca College Secondary School where a footbridge and a footpath are being built in time for the next scholastic year.

Minister Bonnici said that, “in this school, which is most commonly known as the Lyceum, students and educators were having an inconvenience walking from one end of the school to the other. As soon as the ministry received this complaint, we set off to find a solution to this challenge. The school is made up of two main buildings and to move from one block to the other, people have to go down to ground floor level. Together with the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools, we saw that a footpath and footbridge are constructed on the second and third floors respectively so as to connect both buildings from each level, with the aim of saving a lot of time for students and educators and make their life more comfortable.”

CEO of FTS Dr Neville Young explained how, “the first phase included the dismantling and carting away of part of the outer facade walls, as well as reinforced concrete top and bottom slabs, which served as ceiling and floorings respectively. The second phase of the project consisted in the construction of the first-floor covered walkway. From an implementation point of view, this project involved the coordination of a number of trades, such as earth works, concrete works, structural reinforcement works, superstructure works, masonry works, waterproofing works, rendering and painting works, electrical works, paving works and storm water works. All of this was done to make the students’ lives more comfortable.”

The Head of the School Doriann Portanier Mifsud, whilst thanking the Ministry and FTS, said that, “students and teachers at Ħamrun Secondary always felt the need for the installation of a footbridge to link the two main blocks of the school. The reason being that it was very inconvenient for anyone to go from one block to another, since this involved having to go down to the ground floor, walk through the foyer and then go up to the other block. Apart from this inconvenience, this often served as an excuse for a number of students to loiter in corridors, with the result that they are late for lessons. With this in mind, and after consultation, I decided that it was time to consider what options I had to eliminate such inconveniences. The installation of a footbridge and footpath, to link one block to another so as to decrease the waste of time, was the ideal solution.”

This project is being done with an investment of approximately half a million euro and will be accessible for all as from the next scholastic year.