The transfer of Mtarfa primary school students to Msida has caused concern and frustration among parents who believe that their children deserve to be educated in their locality.

The primary school building at Mtarfa has been deemed to have dangerous structural issues and after the Carnival holidays the children will be first moved temporarily to Msida for the rest of the scholastic year and then, from September, will be relocated to Rabat.

“We are very angry. We are going to end up without a school in Mtarfa,” a parent told The Malta Independent on Sunday.

Last week, the Education Ministry announced that students at St Nicholas Primary School in Mtarfa will be transferred to Msida Hub on 22 February after experts reported continuous degradation of the building’s structure. The last day students attended school in Mtarfa was on 15 February.

St Nicholas Primary School Mtarfa was built in 1893 as the Officer’s Mess for the British and it currently accommodates 92 students.

Parents told The Malta Independent on Sunday that they had a meeting with the Education Ministry last week when they were informed that the Msida location is only a temporary solution. As from the next scholastic year, the students will be moving to St Nicholas College School A, Rabat, while the current students in Rabat will be moving to a new school that is currently under construction in that locality.

Rabat is closer to Mtarfa than Msida.

“It's a shock for us, the mothers, and a shock for the children because this happened in a week,” one parent said.

It has been known for years that the school’s structure was in a dangerous state and this should have been addressed beforehand, another parent said.

One parent also said that the local council had no idea about this and it only found out after parents spoke up. “How can it be that a local council does not know that the locality’s government school is going to close?”

More than that, all parents were furious as to why Mtarfa was not getting its own school, “Don’t the children of Mtarfa deserve to have a school in their locality?”

“There are places in Mtarfa where schools can be built,” another parent said. Multiple parents commented on the number of dilapidated buildings and spaces that Mtarfa has which could be used as the site for a new primary school.

However, besides the fact the parents are disappointed that their children will be moved to Rabat, they were also doubtful whether the new school there will be completed by September, to allow the Mtarfa children to use the “old” Rabat school.

“We are uncertain as to whether our children are really going to Rabat or are they going to go back to Msida?”

One parent questioned the state of the building in Rabat: “What is wrong with the actual school now? If it wasn't good for them, why is it good for us?”

Parents were also not happy that now they had to send their young children to school on a minibus as Msida is far away.

One parent brought up how parents who have their children in kinder, will now be obliged to send them on the minibus because they have no other option.

“We are used to taking them to the gate, staying with them if they are crying until they are comfortable and then we take them in.”

“Now I have to do something which I never wanted to do, send my child on the minibus. I don't trust our roads to send my daughter on the minibus, but now I have to because I cannot do otherwise.”

Lastly, all parents spoke very highly of the current headmaster who fought tooth and nail to make sure that the children were kept together and not divided.

“He would have moved the school itself if it was possible,” a parent said.