Hazardous schools get essential maintenance

Not all schools have learnt safety lessons after unsecured goalposts fell on a boy and killed him a decade ago. The 14-year-old was playing football at his Ħamrun school when he hung on to the crossbar and the posts went over, causing him severe head injuries. But an inspection of schools in April revealed “at least three” dangerous sets of goalposts, a ministry spokesman said. One of them, at the Kirkop primary school, was tied to the wall behind it with a piece of blue string, “just in case it toppled over”. The area was closed off immediately and the potentially dangerous goalposts will be replaced, he said, adding that over the years this had been done several times. The Kirkop hazard was spotted and photographed during a tour of schools by officials checking areas in need of maintenance – and it was not just football pitches. They came across corridors with cracked tiles and crumbling walls. In the Fgura primary, the officials also took pictures of exposed rusty reinforcing bars in the ceiling of one of the toilets. These are examples of faults that will be fixed using a €15 million fund that will go towards maintaining 107 government schools over the next three years. This...