Children as young as five will have to move into hotel rooms across the country when the new scholastic year starts at the end of this month, as part of a new government measure to curtail the spread of the coronavirus.
With the government determined not to postpone the start of the new term despite an ever-rising number of Covid-19 cases, the Education Ministry will take the extreme step of separating both primary and secondary-school-aged children from their families.
“Each child will be placed in a hotel room with two other classmates, with no one else allowed to visit. The only place they will be allowed to go is to their school. At the end of lessons, they will be expected to return immediately, without coming into contact with their families,” Education Minister Owen Bonnici said in a press conference earlier this afternoon.
Bonnici stressed that children would also have to make their own way to school.
“Ideally they would get a taxi to keep the number of people with whom they come into contact to an absolute minimum, but catching the bus would also be acceptable. Or even better, walk it,” he said.
The minister also played down the negative effect that self-isolation would have on children.
“It will be an adventure for them, the first time they’ve been away from grown-ups. Like Peter Pan, but in a hotel room instead of Neverland.”
The vast majority of children will be staying in the Sliema/St Julians area, where most of Malta’s hotels are located.
“A secondary benefit of this measure is that hotels will have a 100 percent occupancy rate, probably for the first time ever. You’re welcome, Julia.”
However, Bonnici refused to disclose how much the government would be paying the hundreds of hotels that will host the children.
“It’s not like we’re paying for an all-inclusive stay. The hotels won’t be organising any activities, and the parents will have to provide their food. Or they can learn a life skill and cook it themselves. ” he said.
Asked if teachers will also be placed in hotels, Bonnici said:
“No of course not. Can you imagine the Facebook comments if we put teachers in hotel rooms? That would be almost as bad as announcing we’re going to put immigrants in them.”
