An extra €30 million has been spent on ensuring that schools are COVID-secure since they reopened in October after an unprecedented seven-month shutdown.

Most of the money was spent on extra staff for supervising social distance rules and on subsidising transport.

To keep pupils and staff safe, money was also spent on cleaning supplies for new hygiene measures and technology to boost online learning. 

The figures were revealed on Tuesday in a joint news conference by the finance and education ministries. 

Finance minister Clyde Caruana compared Malta’s reopening of schools with the UK’s efforts, pointing out that some schools in England are closing down again whilst Malta has had little transmission in its schools, implying that the measures worked out well.

He also highlighted that the extra measures such as the ones that needed to be taken due to COVID-19 were one of the main reasons for the country’s deficit, which is predicted to be €1.22 billion by the end of the year.

“The extra €30 million spent for schools for this academic year was important to provide the best level of education possible,” he said.

Education minister Justyne Caruana said the €30m enabled schools to reopen and function “as normally as possible.”

“School is the natural environment for kids and their learning process, and that’s where we wanted them to be. Reopening our institutions came at a significant cost but essential to do so,” she said.

The finance minister also pointed out that financial aid was not given to state schools only but also widened to include both church and private sectors.

“We made sure that all schools who needed our assistance were provided for. A large chunk of these funds was spent mainly on subsidising transport accessibility and paying wages for social distancing supervisors and extra supporting staff,” the finance minister stated.

The education minister briefly outlined the importance of technological investments, stating that there are ongoing efforts to make sure that schoolkids across the board have access to online learning.

“The digitization of education is important and we wanted to provide more incentives for that, including providing the technological framework for it. 

“We also gave extra assistance to students who needed counseling, particularly for vulnerable kids who needed learning coaches to support them,” she said.