Updated | Labour, PN argue over students' funds

Adds reaction by the PL

The Nationalist Party has criticised the government for ‘distorting’ what Opposition leader Simon Busuttil had said about an upcoming reform in the student maintenance grant system.

This reform will see the same amount of money that was previously sent to students’ smart cards transferred directly into their bank accounts.  

“The leader of the Opposition did not say what the Labour Party is alleging,” the PN said in a statement. “What he actually said is that the government is trying to gather its dignity after it caused the recent delay in the publication of exam results for students at the University and the Junior College.”

This follows the Labour Party’s statement that accused Simon Busuttil of attacking the reform of the student maintenance grant system.

The Labour Party said that this indicated Busuttil’s “lack of faith in the students”.

“As usual, the Labour Party is trying to displace its own mistakes onto someone else. The fiasco of the delay in the publication of students’ exam results rests on the government’s shoulders and nobody else’s,” the PN said.

In a reaction, the PL said the government has “increased students’ stipends and introduced stipends for repeating students, despite the Nationalist Party’s fear campaign that warned people that a Labour government could remove stipends entirely.”

“The Government is committed to continue improving the education system, especially post-secondary education. In fact, the government increased its funding to the University by millions of euro in its latest budget,” the PL said.

“The real fiasco that students had to go through was when the funds for the EUPA programme were suspended. This was due to the Nationalist government not taking this programme seriously enough.”