The life of Mikiel Anton Vassalli, the father of the Maltese language, was the centre of a play staged by St Elias College as part of the annual prize-giving ceremony.

The play called Vassalli Fil-Qorti Tal-Mizien, a musical written by Karmenu Mallia, presented a re-trial of Mikiel Anton Vassalli, played by the young actors.

Carmen Pace Bezzina and Joseph Pace were responsible for the production and Julie Zahra coached the young singers.

This year's guest of honour, Joseph Grima, assistant director for non-state schools, presented the students with their prizes and in his speech praised the college for its democratic sense, academic achievement and continuous development.

The evening started with the school choir singing the national anthem and the college hymn under the direction of Annamaria Cassar.

College rector Fr Charles Mallia outlined the progress achieved following the School Development Plan. With regard to assessment, Fr Mallia mentioned the award of an assessment mark besides the exam mark and the use of the global mark for prize-giving.

He said that in the ethos area there was more communication with the parents through monthly reports while in the resource area, new computers and new benches for the science laboratory had been ordered.

The prize-giving celebration was held at St Agatha's Auditorium, Rabat.