Full details of free school transport to all students initiative to published in coming weeks

The full details of the initiative which will provide free school transport to all students, regardless of whether they attend state, independent, or Church schools, will be published in the coming weeks, one the government's consultation with all the relevant stakeholders is finalised, the Ministry for Education has told The Malta Independent.

The ministry did not reply to the specific question whether or not the project will be available at the start of the next scholastic year.

The government has launched a survey in a bid to gauge the population's sentiments towards the logistical and time-management challenges that the proposal could face.

It seems that the administrator of the service is yet to be chosen with the survey asking whether the respondent would want the administrator of the system to be an independent operator or the government.

During the budget speech last October, the government announced that discussions and studies on the initiative would begin in 2018 with a view to offering such free transport for the scholastic year 2018/2019. It was later revealed that the Education Ministry will head the project with assistance from the Transport Ministry. 

Since the initial proposal, both Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Transport Minister Ian Borg have said that the government is determined to implement short, medium, and long-term measures by introducing the necessary infrastructure, while also promoting mobile activity to alternative modes of transport in a bid to decrease congestion's effects on air quality.

Both the Labour Party and the Nationalist Party had included the initiative within their electoral manifestos in the last general election, and believed that the scheme would have a significant positive effect on morning traffic; however, it was only the Labour Party that provided some indication of what the scheme would cost.

Muscat had told a press conference on 29 May that the initiative, along with the increase in children's allowance, would cost a total of €21 million.

from The Malta Independent http://ift.tt/2nxd55H
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