Maltese students, while studying at post secondary colleges, get a stipend. I'm not sure if there's a fixed rate or not, but in my case I got €233 / Lm100 at the beginning of the year and €84 / lm36 per month.

Everyone gets the Lm100 at the begining of the year, (provided you're not repeating a year) which can be used through a smart card, which *supposedly* you can only use for buying books and other school related material. I can pretty well say that this Lm100 is needed. I bought all my books and other accessories for the year using this stipend.. However I'll wonder why I need another Lm100 for the second year, since I've already got the books.

The other Lm36 which we get per month, again provided that you are not a repeater, is deposited directly into each student's bank account. So as you figured out, it can be used to buy whatever you want. There's *supposedly* a mechanism that checks whether you're attending lectures or not, if you miss a certain amount of lectures, you receive a warning at home and end up without the stipend for the particular month.

I wanted to experiment with this from day 1. I always believed that the limit I mentioned was simply a hoax.. 99% of the students where always like.. "I can't miss another lesson or I'll go beyond the limit and I can't miss that Lm36" and I would simply laugh in their faces. First reason for doing this is, does Lm36 do you any difference at all, per month? I mean come on, for god's sake, in today's world what are Lm36? Secondly, I love it when people do something because other say something about this "something". Just because a lot of people say something, does this imply it is meant to be believed?

So anyway, I used to go over the limit, especially in the first term. Note however, I didn't do it just because I wanted to find out if it's a hoax or not, or to be cool around friends. It's just, why should I attend lectures about stuff which I already know? Programming basics, I've done that years ago, hell even the programming we're doing right now is peanuts. And the good part is that I never missed a single stipend! So yeah, if you're aspiring to be a first year student at JC, (although I highly suggest to reconsider changing college) make up your own mind and don't give a shit about what others say. Though there must be a limit, probably a ridiculous one. I know because I have, or shall I say, had "friends" (because they dropped out) which basically spent the whole days smoking at White Arrow. And of course, they got a big fat ass warning at home.

Anyway, this post is supposed to be about stipends not how much lectures you must miss in order not to receive the stipend. So here it goes, I have a proposal. How about we abolish the monthly stipend?

I brought up this question during a computer class yesterday and it brought on a chaos. For me, I could live without a stipend. I don't need the government's Lm36 to pay bus fares and lunch. I'm fortunate enough to have my own Lm36 per month. Of course I was bombared with "you're saying such a thing because you're not dependent on the stipend". Yes true, but students like me, most of them, and I could reasonably assume that all of them, live with their parents / guardian. So, practically no one, is fending for himself, everyone is living in a household with someone who can actually supply some money. Now I have a simply question. Who doesn't have 94 euro cents for the bus fare and another euro to buy something to eat, per day?

There was a girl who said she can't afford it, since she isn't supported financially from her parents. Well in that case, I would have a special board who can check such genuine cases.

Now onto the reason why I proposed such a thing. I've been a post secondary student for a year now, and I know what goes on between the students. God knows how many times I heard this phrase "I can't wait until the stipend is deposit to buy ". And you can well see it with your eyes. A couple of days after the stipend is deposited, you can see easily the amount of new goods; mobiles and other gadgets, fags, new clothes, whatever.

And who's paying for all this? YOU. You the taxpayer. You who pays endless amounts of tax every end of the month.

There's another benefit of abolishing stipends. You get rid of "students" who are simply doing nothing. Except from hooking up with girls, drinking in bars, and living out a dream on somebody's taxes. I can assure you, there's lots of these kind of people.

There's another benefit I believe, if we are to abolish stipends. However I'll talk about it in another post though.

U il-Gonz jifrah kemm ghandna studenti terzjarji, u li il-JC se jixpakka. Mur ghidlu li nofshom qeghdin hemm biex jibilawh f'ghajnhom!

PS: this would be my 101th post!