Government to give €3 million in grants to private independent schools

€3 million is to be paid out to private independent schools over the next three years in grants for staff improvement and technological upgrading.

Finance and education ministers Tonio Fenech and Dolores Cristina announced the grant system at St Martin's College in the presence of Independent Schools Association Bernice Mizzi.

The scheme will cover works already carried out by schools from 1 January 2012. A ministry spokesperson said the grants are part of the Budget 2012 measures announced last year.

Independent schools will benefit up to €95 per kindergarten pupil, and €145 and €170 for each pupil in primary and secondary education.

The grants come on top of tax rebates to parents of €1,300, €1,600 and €2,300 for kindergarten, primary and secondary school children respectively.

Mizzi welcomed the €3 million grant as a pleasant conclusion to talks held between government and the ISA over the financial problems faced by private independent schools in ensuring their longevity.

In 2010, a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the ISA said the schools would need €17 million over the next decade - in the form of tax credits or a "voucher system" for parents to send their children to private schools - to finance the ever higher cost of private education.

"We work hard to improve our quality of education and we cannot do this without added funding," Mizzi said today. "School fees cannot be raised any higher and we need government's support. The grants for the ISA schools will help sustain our exciting future."

According to ISA report, in 2010 it cost less to educate a student at a private school (€1,655 a year, compared to €2,217 for State school students), but if private schools close down, the cost to absorb these students into the Church and State schools would be as high as €3,000 per head.

Education minister Dolores Cristina acknowledged that the general improvement across state schools could not be ignored. "We see competition between state and private as well as church schools, but we also acknowledge that all children - whether those who attend private, government, or church educated - are children 'of government' and we respect parents' right to choose their children's education."

Cristina told MaltaToday that the impression that parents who sent their children to private schools were rich "is a myth... these parents work hard to send their children to the school they see fit, and we would rather invest in these children's education than see fees raised."

Finance minister Tonio Fenech said the grants will benefit go directly into up-skilling of staff and technological investment for private schools.

In 2010, with the Junior Lyceum exam phased out for secondary state colleges, and a €20 million Church school expansion expected to create 2,000 new places, the ISA faced a smaller supply of students. The association claimed the 'loss in demand' would mean that they would either close down their schools, or significantly downsize their operations because of this 'loss in business'.

"The current financial situation facing the schools threatens their long-term viability... the spiral would be one of higher costs, reducing student population and sharp fee escalation, leading to further reductions in student numbers, until one is left with a handful of elite schools catering for a tiny minority of students," the ISA warned in its PWC report.