Millionaire cabinet minister Manuel Mallia did indeed get a free place for his daughter at a church school
Manuel Mallia queuing for the free-school ballot
Last Wednesday’s church school selection process, which he attended with Mrs Mallia and at which he was photographed (see earlier post and also the picture here) was the ballot for free places in church school kindergartens, which automatically lead to a permanent free place in a church school for girls, right through primary and secondary level.
The results of the ballot are public on the Malta Diocese website. Carmela Mallia, a millionaire’s daughter, was 21st in the ballot as you can see here, and automatically qualified for a free place at a church school.
The Labour Party’s political battle for church schools being free of charge, you will recall, was all about the fact that they should be accessible to people without the money to pay the fees.
And now we have those free places going to the children of millionaires.
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http://ms.maltadiocese.org/WEBSITE/2014/CHURCH%20SCHOOLS/CHOICE%20OF%20SCHOOL%20KINDER%202%20GIRLS.pdf
Min jaf kemm qabez bil-ferh Manuel Mallia meta semgha isem it-tifla.
X’qieghed tghid? Ma tarax li ma setax jaghmel hekk?
Huwa biex taqbez (anki bil-ferh) ma tridx tkun tqantar, siehbi.
Ma nafx jekk, bis-sistema li min ikollu xi huh jew ohtu diga fi skola tal-knisja, ikollux ‘dritt’ li jidhol hemm hu wkoll.
Ma niskantax, pero’, li f’dan il-kaz partikulari jkun hekk.
As they say in English, he put his full weight behind the cause.
He first wants his daughter to go to a church school, then he’s probably one of the first voting in favour of divorce, gay adoption rights etc. and criticising the teachings of the church.
The attraction is that it is free, not that it is run by the Catholic Church.
Which is why any free entrance into Church schools should be means tested.
Komdu Manwel Mallia. Fejn irid u kif irid.
There is absolutely nothing wrong or contradictory with being a Catholic and voting in favour of divorce, gay adoption rights etc.
If that “etc” includes abortion, then yes – there’s something very contradictory with claiming to be Catholic.
Matt: there is everything wrong with being a practising Catholic and voting in favour of divorce, gay adoption and any other “et cetera” that would match.
I thought I’d let you know but that’s as far as I’ll go, as this is not the place to embark on such a discussion, not least because our gracious hostess is not too keen on the subject.
Where was Manwel Mallia during Labour’s “jew b’xejn, jew xejn” campaign?
Canvassing for and working with the late Guido DeMarco.
Did he oppose or favour free access to church-run schools?
Trojan horse
He was still a Nationalist then, accompanying Guido Demarco.
Doesn’t he have twins? Once one of them is in I suppose the other will be given a place automatically.
[Daphne – His twins are boys and they are at St Edward’s College.]
Is it fee-paying? If yes he has different values for his male and female children. Very liberal and non discriminatory of him.
[Daphne – Yes, it is fee-paying and the fees are very high by Maltese standards. However, you cannot assess his choice on the basis of discrimination between sons and daughters, because the reality is that his twin sons are severely autistic and that school provides the right environment for them at that level, as do other fee-paying independent schools.]
Did not know they were autistic. In the UK, state schools with special support provide the best education for children with specific educational needs.
So, he is paying for a private school for the twins but will not do so for his daughter.
She will never forgive him.
Mela l-qamel mat-tifla. Ghal-Manwel Mallia n-nisa inqas mil-irgiel.
Semmiha ghal ommu. Xi hlew.
Dio, Patria, Famiglia.
Ommu kienet tinfexx f’xeba kliem hazin meta sempliciment tara wicc Mintoff fuq it-televixin (rajtha u smajtha).
Great guy. No tattoos either.
Can you imagine what a tattoo that size would cost?
Of course he has no tattoos.
Sewwa jghidu li l-furtuna tghin lill min ma jkollux bzonnha. Ghalkemm li nemmen li ma kienitx furtuna.
There is a new book about liberalism out (Liberalism: The Life of an Idea. By Edmund Fawcett,.Princeton University Press) and The Economist is running a review of it.
The review contains this line, definitely the quote of the week:
‘Mr Fawcett provides a timely reminder that liberalism is much richer—more concerned with those who lose elections than those who win them, wary of concentrated power wherever it may be found, and committed to the intrinsic worth of every individual.’
http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21602655-eloquent-study-belief-under-siege-barricades
Ragel bil-ghaqal ta’ vera Manwel Mallia (ilsien hziena jsejhulu mejjet bil-guh).
Ilma b’xejn mill-funtana ta’ quddiem il-palazz u skola b’xejn tal-Knisja.
Minn jaf kif ha jfawwarhom bid-donation l-iskola ta’ Carmela.
Do you not think that perhaps you could have done without mentioning his twins and them having special needs? This may be a detail which the parents may have not wanted to bandy around on a blog. Not out of shame, perhaps out of privacy. Osservanza zghira. Minghajr ebda polemika.
[Daphne – I do not consider disabled children to be a cause or matter of shame for their parents, and I am assuming that the parents don’t, either. They do not ‘have special needs’. They are autistic. Call it by its name, and enough with this shame about facts of life.]
Daphne must have long known about the condition of these twins but she never mentioned it before today, It is not news per se but was only relevant to the discussion today.
Does anyone know which school he chose? It seems that in placing 21, he had all options.
Daqshekk ghandhom ghal qalbhom lill ulied il haddiem, il-fqir, dak dizimpjegat, dak bla xoghol, ghax DAN HU il Lejber tal lum. U min huma dawn ? Dawn huma dawk li riedu edukazzjoni socjalista li biha il gvern jghid fejn, meta,kif u x`jistudjaw ulied il klassi il baxxa, il klassi tal haddiem. il klassi ta dawk li jitilfu l-impieg, ghal dawk li jaqilghu paga minima, ghal dak kollu li jaghmel il haddiem Laburist. Illum il partit immexxi fit-triq tal Kapitalizmu, tas-sinjuri, taz-zigarelli, tal klikek, tac crieki tal qalba. Il veru u fil veru Partit tas Super One addio Labour, bye bye Laburisti, sahiet MLP ghax qerdek il PL il Partit Liberali gdid imwaqqaf minn Joseph Muscat u l-klikek tieghu.
Is this a vote of no-confidence in state schools?
Evarist Bartolo may have a word or two with Manwel, about this.
According to the link even her siblings participated in the ballot. So he even tried to secure a place in a church school for the boys but he was not lucky there.
He will actually get a place for the boy if he chooses a school like St. Francis which is for girls and boys.
Incorrect Me again. Boys Index number 291 and 338 have also been secured a place bhala Kazijiet Umanitarju Gravi, in need of support for LSA/shared LSA. The boys actually got to have the school chosen before those in the ballot for Year 1.
The church ballots are not means tested, so there is no irregularity in it as such. The fact that he was there waiting like everybody else, shows that he was being transparent. One has to at least acknowledge that.
Re his sons, they clearly needed support and if church school entrance system provides provision (and scrutiny) for that kind of support, then he did his HW well like any other parent in his same situation.
.
Nahseb tant qabez bil-ferh li mhux ser johrog 1c ghal-edukazzjoni ta’ bintu li naqas tunnellata.
Another symptom of the Banana Republic of Malta.
Another clear sign of the PL’s hypocrisy.
Actually he took three places because he applied for his twin sons for year 1 as well. Once the girl was drawn in the ballot the boys will get a place too.
Incorrect…by ballot regs, the younger sibling cannot secure places for older ones. Only an older sibling can secure a place for a younger one, and this provided that the school chosen is a mixed school if the siblings are of different gender or same gender school if siblings are of same gender.
WhileI understand that Mallia can send his daughter to a private school as he does with his twin boys,he has a right like everybody else to try his luck.
[Daphne – Rights and tact are two separate matters, Persil. We have a right to do all sorts of things that we shouldn’t do, or that it would be tactless and egocentric to do. This is not about whether Manuel Mallia had a right to take a poor person’s place at a church school for his daughter when he can afford to pay fees (he has that right). This is about whether he should have done so: not whether he had a right, but whether he was right.]