PN government considered selling 12 state schools

The Nationalist administration had carried out an exercise to determine the value of 12 state schools with the intent of putting them up for sale.

Education minister Evarist Bartolo said that the previous administration had determined the value of 12 schools, including the boys' secondary schools in St Venera, Paola, Zebbug, Gzira, Birkirkara, Cospicua and Marsa.

Other schools which were included in the exercise were the girls secondary schools in Cospicua, Rabat and St Andrews together with the primary school in Msida.

Bartolo did not divulge the value of the schools. Earlier this month, Bartolo said that the Labour government was considering putting up schools for sale to finance the ministry's budget gap.

MaltaToday had revealed that the sale of surplus schools for their development into commercial or residential property could be the only way to finance an ambitious €60 million programme for the construction of new schools.

Schools built by the Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools (FTS) - the entity responsible for the construction of new schools and their development - were being financed by a €73 million bank loan during the previous administration.

But the loan interest payable now risks gobbling up capital spending earmarked for future schools by the previous government.

MaltaToday's inquiry into claims by Education Minister Evarist Bartolo that FTS had run out of funds to build new schools has revealed that, according to a preliminary evaluation, FTA had no long-term financing plan for the school construction.

Plans for new secondary schools and the refurbishment of others, as well as the construction of the new campus for the Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology were made "without a structured finance plan or strategy," the evaluation of the FTS's programme of works reveals.

Evarist Bartolo confirmed to MaltaToday that the previous government's 2014-2020 programme for €60 million in school projects did not have a proper financing plan.

"The Labour government reassures the public it is fully committed to continuing the process of school development and the maintenance of school infrastructure across the country, and that it will also ensure that this will be done through sustainable medium- and long-term financing," Bartolo said when questioned on the assessment of the FTS.

"The financing strategy for the future must be designed from scratch, as in my opinion there is none," the minister said.