MaltaMedia.com

Thousands of pupils in state schools headed back to school on Monday. After long summer holidays lasting around ten weeks, the school doors of state primary and secondary schools reopened for another scholastic year. Some private schools also reopened on Monday, although some of them did so last week.

In fact, there are a total of 34,437 pupils returning to school: 4,832 of them are kindergarten pupils; 14,318 primary school pupils and 15,287 secondary school pupils. There are 851 teachers in primary schools, 2,011 in secondary schools and 420 kindergarten assistants.

The Education Ministry also recently announced that for the first time in years it should have a full complement of teachers this scholastic year.

Also, on Friday 25^th September, the Institute of Tourism Studies opened its doors for a new academic year. This year there are around 550 students, 350 of whom are new, studying one of 15 full time courses that the Institute offers. The students at the Institute are from 21 different countries. There are also another 400/500 students studying 29 part times courses at this same institute.

Education Minister Dolores Cristina welcomed the return to a new scholastic year and said that most pupils have returned to a better school due to the embellishment and maintenance that went on at state schools this summer.

She added that the teaching of science is going to be given more importance, basic skills are going to be emphasised from a young age, the curriculum is going to be changed to reflect modern times, streaming will be removed and a new system introduced for the transition from primary to secondary schools.

The Labour Party also welcomed the opening of the new scholastic year and urged the Education Ministry to solve past educational problems.

Spokesman Evarist Bartolo urged the authorities to tackle the problems of truancy, lack of discipline, the large number of students who stop their education at 16, the lack of places for vocational training, shortcomings in the SEC system and rising education-related costs for parents.

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