Joseph Muscat is at it again – declaiming his own greatness. “There were many who told us it was impossible when we proposed a foreign university in Gozo,” he said, referring to Barts medical school. “Nobody can erase this success,” he bragged, pretending to congratulate the first group of Barts graduates – but actually congratulating himself.
What success? The Maltese taxpayer pays €1.2 million annually to fund Barts. And that’s for 30 years. That “success” cost Malta €36 million.
When Vitals failed to build their campus in time, Malta Enterprise took over Gozo’s sixth form and refurbished it for Barts’ use. Gozitan students were kicked out of their premises and the taxpayer paid for the privilege and the refurbishment.
A small Gozo hospital is hardly sufficient to provide comprehensive training for medical students. The truth is that Barts’ students only undergo part of their training in Gozo.
The rest, particularly clinical teaching, is conducted in Malta, where Barts’ students compete with University of Malta medical students for clinical placements and teaching.
Maybe Muscat could answer one simple question about his “success”. How many of the handful of Barts’ medical graduates have joined the Maltese health service? How many of them contributed at least one day, even one hour to treating Maltese patients?
The answer is none. Not one of those graduates contributed a single minute to serving Maltese patients.
None of them used their clinical competences to give something back to their host country, Malta. Far less to their host island, Gozo.
Millions of our money Muscat squandered on his vanity project, yielded Malta no return.
Since 2016, Malta has paid €7.2 million to fund Barts. In return, the Maltese health service has not seen a single minute of service from any Barts graduate. A handful of Gozitans may have made a few hundred euro renting out rooms to those students. Some Gozitan restaurants might have sold a few pizzas. Gozo’s Lidl probably marginally increased its sales.
Yet, Labour keeps funnelling €1.2 million annually into one small foreign medical school in Gozo that contributed nothing to the local health workforce.
Labour is cutting €1.1 million in funding for the whole University of Malta – all 14 faculties. Barts runs a small medical school – not even a whole faculty – producing a handful of graduates, yet benefits from €1.2 million in public funding.
Over 3,500 students graduate from the University of Malta. The huge majority actively and directly contribute to our society. The bulk of our university’s graduates join the local workforce, provide essential services and contribute to the local economy. Yet, Labour decided to axe their funding. Labour is robbing our university to pay Barts.
That can hardly be gauged a “success” – it sounds more like another dismal failure to add to Muscat’s legacy.
Labour’s excuse for slashing the University of Malta’s funding is the current economic climate.
Malta is not the only country affected by world events. So is France. Yet, President Macron just announced €500 million in additional funding for his country’s education.
Millions of our money Joseph Muscat squandered on his vanity project yielded Malta no return- Kevin Cassar
At the traditional education officials’ back-to-school meeting at a Parisian university, Macron’s announcement was welcomed with a standing ovation. Macron wanted to reaffirm that education is at the heart of his second term.
Despite the “end of abundance”, Macron is determined education will not suffer. Besides the €500 million injection he also confirmed an unconditional 10 per cent salary increase for the entire teaching profession.
There are additional pay rises for teachers who take on additional roles such as supporting students in difficulty or supervising extracurricular activities. That boosts teachers’ salaries by 20 per cent.
Robert Abela couldn’t be more different. Abela’s now turning on his people. Cynically, he’s cutting funding from the only ray of hope for the country – our university.
Why make cuts to education of all things? Is it because Clifton Grima, the education minister, is an easy target, since he is one of the weakest cabinet members?
Abela knows that Grima won’t oppose him or resist. Grima would rather kiss his leader’s butt and secure his own future than protect our future generations’ prospects. The only factor in his calculation is how to improve his chances of retaining his portfolio and possibly get a more prominent role in future cabinets.
Besides, Grima knows other ministries will be affected too. Probably they already are – it’s just that we haven’t heard because nobody’s leaked the memo yet.
Abela is still bragging about his economic successes, the unprecedented 8.5% growth. The truth is that he accumulated a €225 million deficit until June. The national debt is rapidly hurtling towards the €9 billion mark.
Labour massacred the Gonzi administration for being put into excessive deficit procedures. But Labour’s deficit by end 2021 was eight per cent of GDP – far above the three per cent that EU rules allow.
The only reason Malta’s not back onto excessive deficit procedures is because those rules were suspended because of COVID-19.
Labour now has no choice. It cannot keep racking up debt. They’re desperate to cut spending. They can’t kick out the hordes of persons of trust they appointed. They can’t entice the 1,200 people on the GWU jobless scheme to transfer to the private sector and do some proper work. They can’t stop churning out those shameless direct orders to its party funders.
That money is its pizzo – its protection money – protection to remain in power and continue to provide impunity for all those neck deep in abuse of power, flagrant corruption and misuse of public funds. They can’t cut the funds to Barts or Steward either.
As Steward runs up a €6 million profit off our taxes, Barts benefits from €1.2 million of public annual funding, Joseph Portelli sells the state concrete from his illegal batching plant on public land, and Ian Borg buys silk ties from Charles and Ron, it’s our future generations who are penalised, our university that gets bludgeoned. It’s our country’s future that is destroyed.
But Barts is a success. And Joseph is serene.