Free childcare centres for April deadline

The government's electoral promise for free childcare services will be introduced next April, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo announced today.

Visiting 'Smart Kids' child care centre in Birgu, Bartolo said that Malta currently has among the lowest rate of kids attending these centres, standing at 19%. With these incentives, the government is aiming to double this rate.

Malta currently has 70 childcare centres, 55 of which are privately owned. As promised in its electoral manifesto, the government will provide free childcare through its state-owned schools while it will also subsidise the private ones.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said the government will fork out around €3 per hour to every child attending private schools. Parents will be free to choose which ever child care centre they wish to send their children to. Tax credits will be given to those opting for a private centre.

"First and foremost it is an educational measure aimed at providing a high-quality learning environment to kids before three years of age. Studies have shown that the first thousand days are crucial to the child's eductaional development," Evarist Bartolo said.

He noted that kids were likely to have linguistic and emotional drawbacks if they did not enjoy a stimulating educational experience in his first years.

"This is why we are also eradicating the mentality that child carers do not need be trained. We want to provide a stimulating experience and this can only be achieved by trained carers, such as those graduating in this field from MCAST."

Asked whether this policy will yield a burden on the existing centres, Evarist Bartolo answered in the negative, saying the current 70 child care centres are "under utilised."

The Finance Minister said that apart from its educational aspect, the measure seeks to encourage mothers to enter the labour workforce or continue pursuing their studies. 

"In the past 12 months, female participation in the labour market increased by 4%, amounting to around 3,000 individuals. We want this rate to continue increasing. In the past years, the government did not make good use of this human resource. This is part of our plan for economic growth," Scicluna explained. 

The government is expected to invest an initial €4 million into this scheme.