Private schools at saturation point, Muscat warns

Foreign investors are flagging the saturation of Malta’s private schools, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat warned.

“Private schools on the island are at saturation point and there are hardly any vacant places in any of them, which is an issue that has been flagged by potential foreign investors,” Muscat said, urging private schools to expand their operations.

Earlier today, Muscat and education minister Evarist Bartolo launched proposed amendments to the Education Act that would allow parents to apply to the Commission for General Education to provide home schooling for their children.

The prime minister was addressing a ministerial statement following last week’s EU summit on Brexit.

He brushed off Opposition leader Simon Busuttil’s concerns that the departure of the UK from the EU could lead to the loss of English as the EU’s main working language.

“There’s a common understanding that English will remain the EU’s main working language. The only issue regards the funding of the language – 80% of its funds currently come from the UK.”

Muscat also warned of growing sentiment against the immigration of Eastern Europeans, and pledged to undertake talks with the UK’s new prime minister on ways to enhance bilateral relations.

He also suggested that Malta could be willing to extend its upcoming stint of the EU presidency – currently from January to June 2017. Malta was originally supposed to hand over the reins to the UK, but is now set to hand them over to Estonia – the next in line.

“If Malta takes the EU presidency for a whole year, then it could prove too much of a strain on our public resources,” he noted. “Ideally, we will pass it straight to Estonia, but we are ready to reach a form of compromise, such as the presidency being shared between Malta and Estonia. However, we will need to be aided financially to see this through.”