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Michaela Muscat
With the advent of the cut in stipends for the majority of university students, the Ministry of Education has announced it intends to remove the limit for income from part-time employment for students, meaning that students will be allowed to earn any amount from part-time work in regular employment.
Students registering for a degree before 2005 automatically forfeited their right to a stipend when their income from part-time work exceeded the Lm60 a month awarded through the stipend scheme.
However the decrease in stipends to Lm40 means that most students will be forced to supplement their maintenance grant with part-time work. Education minister Louis Galea has of late also been promoting the virtues of hard work: “When I was a student, I washed dishes and worked as a receptionist. Such jobs helped me come to terms with the real world of work. Such experiences helped me to mature.”
However, according to the National Statistics Office, national unemployment stands at 7.8 percent, with the level for youths aged between 15-24 currently at 17.5 per cent.
mmuscat@mediatoday.com.mt
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