Government borrows €50m for school-building

The government has negotiated a new loan of €50 million to be used for the building of new schools over the coming five years, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said in reply to parliamentary questions this evening. He said the government has also successfully renegotiated a €70 million loan taken out by the former government for school building and which would otherwise have had to be paid back by next year. €15m of that €70 million will be used for school maintenance. Replying to further questions, Mr Bartolo said the introduction of the concept of co-ed schools had brought about a change in the planning of school-building and plans were being re-drawn. Furthermore, he said, the government wanted to see smaller schools where pupils would not be anonymous.