Malta: Government expenditure for every child in free childcare comes to €4,000 a year

Every child who goes to free childcare costs the Government around €4,000 a year. This was stated by the CEO of JobsPlus Alexia Vella to the members of the Public Accounts Parliamentary Committee which has continued to discuss the audit of the system by the Verification Office.  Mrs Vella was responsible for the management of the scheme over the last three years.

She said that there are 146 free childcare centres in Malta and Gozo with the last four being registered in October. In her reply to Labour MP Glenn Bedingfield she said that when the scheme began in 2013, there were 69 private centres. By the end of last month, almost 6,500 children were attending these centres ranging in ages from newborns to three years when they then begin kindergarten. She added that last year there were 7,341 children attending these centres.

Source TVM

Updated 1646