The Nationalist Party said Tuesday it is concerned and is closely monitoring the situation at the Dun Manwel Attard Resource Centre in Wardija, which caters for students with disabilities aged between 16 and 22.

This Centre, which for many years has provided an excellent service and offered peace of mind to parents of children with disabilities, now seems set to be phased out, with services instead shifted to the Life Map programme in Pembroke.

While the PN said it welcomed the fact that there may be more opportunities in this highly sensitive sector - since it believes in the decentralisation of educational services for children and young people with disabilities - it expects the Government, the Ministry for Education, and the Ministry for Inclusion and the Voluntary Sector to be fully transparent about both the Wardija school and the Life Map Campus in Pembroke, which this week will be welcoming its first group of students.

Until today, the young people attending the Wardija Centre have been receiving therapeutic education that helps provide support which, also through neurodiversity, ensures they are given sufficient equal and fair opportunities within society.

Regrettably, however, the educators and parents of children attending the Wardija school still do not know exactly what will happen to the Centre in the coming years, since the Government has failed to consult them transparently, the PN said.

For this reason, the PN urged the Government to explain, without delay:

What are the long-term plans for the Wardija Centre, and whether it is being shut down;

What will become of the Centre if it ceases to provide the educational service it currently offers;

How much investment is planned for the Centre until it is completely phased out, if that is the intention;

Whether the current educators at the Centre will be transferred to the Life Map Campus;

How many students the Life Map Campus will cater for, and what services it will be providing;

What training and qualifications the educators at the Life Map Campus have, and whether they are able to communicate in both Maltese and English; and

  How much the Government will be paying per student attending Life Map.