The educational sector is in dire need of stability with a fourth minister having now been appointed in as many years, the Nationalist Party said on Tuesday.
Addressing a press conference, PN MP Clyde Puli said that "recurrent problems" in the country’s schools and higher learning institutions are not being addressed as the educational ministry lacks leadership.
“Under a PN government we had got used to a new school every year, now we have a new minister every year,” he said.
Puli added there had been four different education ministers in some 25 years of Nationalist government, which had ensured stability and continuity in the administration.
“I'm not saying everything was perfect, or that there weren’t things we later learnt could have been done differently, but at least there was the stability for the sector to move forward and act of plans and policies,” he said.
Clifton Grima will on Wednesday be sworn in as education minister following the resignation of Justyne Caruana on the back of a damning ethics investigation.
Puli said that going into this portfolio, Grima needed to be aware of the challenges he faces, which his predecessors had failed to resolve.
“Why aren’t we attracting enough talent to the educational sector and teaching profession? Why are we still lacking in areas such as critical thinking? And why are certain courses not being taken up by students?” Puli asked.
The government needs a proper strategy to address these matters and it must ensure that once plans are made they are properly implemented.
Asked for the PN’s position on the permanent secretary at the education ministry, Frank Fabri, Puli said stability should not come at the expense of justice.
Earlier this month, Times of Malta reported how Fabri is being reviewed by the civil service to look into whether he should face disciplinary measures.
While Fabri was a source of stability, having been in the position for several years, investigations must be allowed to take their course, Puli said.
Meanwhile, PN electoral candidate Justin Schembri said the new minister has some answering to do for the way he had run his previous post as sports parliamentary secretary.
In December 2020, a review by the Auditor General into the Ta’ Kandja shooting range raised issues of irregular spending.
The audit found overall mismanagement, weak controls, and various financial irregularities in the project which cost taxpayers some €13 million. Grima had never shouldered any responsibility for the NAO’s findings.
Schembri said this already cast doubts over the new minister’s credentials when it comes to good governance.