Skolasajf 2022 has once again proven to be a service in demand for thousands of services users, as the doors today were opened to welcome nearly 11,000 students. Skolasajf St Julian’s is one of he centres which is offering the service, and it was also the host for the official launch of Skolasajf 2022. The vent was attended by the Minister for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation, Hon Clifton Grima, the FES Chairperson Ms Pamela Schembri, the FES CEO Mr Michael Bondin, the St Clare College Principal Mr Jonathan Attard, and the St Julian’s Primary Head of School Ms Daniella Micallef.
Skolasajf has become an annual appointment as it offers a summer programme for children aged between 3 and 16 years. Based on a programme of informal activities, Skolasajf reaches children who attend State, Independent and Church schools.
The theme chosen for this year is ‘’Earth Heroes, Unite!’. This theme was decided on after holding a number of focus groups with students attending the Klabb 3-16 service during the winter months. They gave their views about the service and what type of subjects they would like to explore in the summer activities. The final theme urges people to be pro-active, and punctuates the need to be united in the face of adversary. This unity will in turn help us to reap the fruit of our work and commitment. The collective of everyone will help to build a better and stronger society. The logo is also tied to the theme, and is based on the winning design submitted by a 9-year-old student, Naielle Formosa Cumbo who attends the Imsida Primary School.
This year Skolasajf is being offered 5 days a week in 57 centres, six of them in Gozo. 36 of these centres offer an extended service of hours in the early morning and in the afternoon, exclusively for working parents. The service is also provided in five Resource Centres, which are attended by students with disabilities. This year, for the first time, FES is offering the service in the Resource Centres across the five days of the week, instead of over a 3-day period as was offered in the past years. This is another step to offer a better service and that also makes it more possible for parents to manage their work commitments.
To provide these services, this year FES employed 2232 workers to fulfil the roles of Regional Coordinators, Centre Coordinators, Playworkers and Child Support Workers, and Sports Playworkers. Skolasajf workers are instrumental in the coordination of the centres, and in the implementation of the Skolasajf Programme. The activities as presented in the Programme Manual bring to the attention of the Skolasajf 2022 participants, a number of sub-themes that help to explore the main theme ‘Earth Heroes, Unite!’. The programme is also complemented with the collaboration of a number of partners who are valuable contributors to the enhancement of the learning opportunities provided to the students. In fact, this year FES can boast of a total of 50 partners who hail from the public service, public sector, and private companies, while others are NGOs. Together they are offering Skolasajf students 172 online sessions, 431 centre visits, and 100 outings.
The FES Management thanks all the Head Office Staff, and all the Centre Coordinators and employees whose work in the centres make this service possible.
