Minister for Education Justyne Caruana has announced an investment of just over a quarter of a million for Summer Catch-up Sessions intended for students affected by the pandemic.

“I am announcing an investment of €257,000 for a recovery programme in the education of our children,” said Minister Caruana.

Parliamentary Secretary Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi said that through this programme, that is co-financed by European funds, additional lessons will be provided to primary and secondary students. They will be given the opportunity to revise what they learned during this scholastic year.

He said that this programme aims at assisting these students who found it more difficult to follow lessons during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Education Minister explained that an initial internal study about attendance during the 2020/2021 scholastic year showed that there was a high level of absenteeism from a substantial number of students. This led to an intensive and coordinated effort leading to the Ministry for Education offering a learning recovery programme, which will take place during the summer.

Minister Caruana said that this will be done in a structured way and will address first those who had a high rate of absenteeism during the pandemic: those students who have less than ten percent school attendance during this scholastic year (October 2020-May 2021) but who attended regularly in schools before the pandemic broke out, during the scholastic year October 2019-March 2020.

These students were identified for each year in the educational system—a total of 2,360 students from Year 1 to Year 11 (1,190 primary students; 402 Year 7 and Year 8 middle school students; and 768 Year 9 and Year 10 secondary school students).

The programme includes not only a range of basic recovery lessons, but also support through various services, which will be done both physically (in person) but also through virtual learning.

The eight-week programme will run from the 12th of July to the 3rd of September, with a timetable of four days a week, from 8.30am to noon, and students will be divided into groups according to their school year.

There will be 4 learning centres for the primary levels: in Victoria, Gozo and Paola, Birkirkara and Qawra in Malta.

The Virtual National School and 4 learning centres for the middle and secondary in: the Secondary School in Gozo and in in St. Lucia, Mriehel and Mosta, Malta. And the Virtual National School, and a centre for sessions of the Prince Trust International Achieve Programme.

The PTI Achieve Catch-up sessions centre will cater for students to help them retrieve those units at different levels they need, to obtain the certificate or qualification at MQF 1/2/3 level.

Application details for those who are interested will be issued in the coming days.

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