July 2000	Update: Malta

Central Office of Statistics - http://www.magnet.mt/home/cos/index.html

Malta Government Information Network (MAGNET) - http://www.magnet.mt

SearchMalta – the Directory of Maltese Websites - http://www.searchmalta.com

ExploreMalta – a directory of Maltese websites - http://www.exploremalta.com

The Museums Department and the Libraries Department at the Ministry of Education do not have a website yet.

Commentary:

One should keep in mind the size of the Malta when analyzing the figures. Malta has a population of 370,000 living on an area of 420 square km, making it one of the densest populations in the world.

Many of the websites of primary and secondary are the initiative of individual schools and not a concerted effort by the Ministry of Education. Internet access in public schools for the time being is available only in schools that took the initiative. The project to introduce access in all public schools, which had to be launched in October 1998, has been postponed with no alternative date given.

The website of the University of Malta (http://www.um.edu.mt) was one of the pioneering websites in Malta and remains the best website of an educational establishment in Malta.

The website of the Malta Government Network (MAGNET) provides information about all the government ministries and departments, but two ministries in particular (Foreign Affairs and Finance) have their own website outside MAGNET. Some departments, like the Environmental Protection Department have chosen to set their own website outside MAGNET.

The only website of a museum is actually on MAGNET's domain name, but it has a distinctive character and can be held as separate.

Several Local Councils took the initiative to have their own website. It is envisaged that with the networking of all 67 Local Councils into a digital value-added network, which began to be implemented in 4th Quarter 1999, each Council will have an automatic on-line presence in the form of a website.

Developments between April and June 2000:

The current academic/scholastic year has not witnessed a substantial increase in the number of websites related to education.

Despite the fact that government officials have announced that the negotiations were still under way and that the final agreement to introduce Internet access in public schools should be signed sometime in April, nothing happened. The project has not been launched yet and given the fact that the current academic/scholastic year ends in July; the service might as well be launched in September/October with the new academic/scholastic year.

The number of websites with resources for teachers continued to increase.

The number of websites of English language academies continued to increase in this period. Malta is levering the power of the Internet to attract foreign students to come and learn English in Malta.