Agreement signed; € parents to save 700 per year per child

Parents will be saving €700 a year per child as the government reached agreement regarding the provision of free school transport to all schools.

Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said in a press conference announcing the agreement that this was the most important fee when speaking of the financials of this deal.

Two contracts have been signed, one with state schools and the other with Church and private schools. Both contracts – the one with state schools involving eight transport operators and the one with Church and private schools, with 18 operators – are valid for five years.

The transport providers will be paid directly by the Education Ministry with parents not being obliged to pay anything.

There are 10 other operators who have also shown interest in the contract with Church and private schools, even though the contract has been signed. These 10 could soon join the 18 already signed on and, in fact, the call for tenders for this contract will remain open and operators are still free to register their interest in it through the web portal www.schooltransport.edu.mt, which will be launched on Monday.

Parents can also make use of this web portal to see a list of all the operators who have signed contracts. In addition, parents will also have the opportunity to download a free app which will be able to trace when a child gets on or off the bus. It will do so through a fob which will be given to each student for placement on his or her backpack, and also a fob that each bus will be fitted with.

The Minister said that the government wanted to provide transport to all students but, at the same time, ensure that the bus operators are well paid for the service being provided.

“As far as I know, nowhere in the world does a government provide financial backing to non-state operators for school transport”, he said.

To move 42,000 students across the island within a specific time range is no easy feat said the Minister, adding that he hoped that, with this agreement, there will be fewer private vehicles on the roads at these times.

When asked if he thought the service would cater for all students on the island, Bartolo was cautious in his response, saying that whilst the government was optimistic, it must also be realistic and recognise certain limitations. He said that his Ministry will be working with the bus operators to overcome problems such as a lack of drivers. There were, he said, some operators who wanted to add vehicles to their fleet, but were unable to do so due to a lack of drivers.

He said that the Ministry would be working with the Cabinet to reduce the bureaucratic restrictions that there are currently in place and may be discouraging people from becoming drivers.

Bartolo expressed his satisfaction that, after 85 separate meetings over the course of the past 12 months, a satisfactory conclusion had been reached, saying that it had been a long process but that, in the end, the goals that the government had in mind had been reached.

A government that keeps its promises PL

In a statement following the announcement of the agreement, the Labour Party said that it was evidence of a government that keeps its word.

It said that this deal confirmed the government’s commitment both to the reduction of traffic and to investing in students and families. The statement read that, with this agreement, thousands of families would be free of a yearly expense, whilst bus operators will also be taking advantage of a well-deserved rise in income.

The Labour Party lamented the fact that the Nationalist Party had tried to hinder this deal and sow uncertainty while the discussions were ongoing. It said that this was evidence of an Opposition that is more focused on partisan politics than on the interests of families. It also noted that, despite what the main Opposition party was saying, the government had also begun investing in new schools and in the refurbishment of old ones.