Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday said it was scandalous for the Malta Labour Party to come up with a half-cocked proposal on education, more so when one considers that no consultation was made prior to putting it forward.

Dr Gonzi was speaking during the television programme Time with the family, held at Villa Arrigo in Naxxar and broadcast on Net Television. The theme for yesterday’s discussion was education. The Prime Minister said that this PN government had decided to invest vast sums of money in the schooling sector, particularly early learning. “A study in Germany concluded that when people are very young, they absorb a lot more knowledge. And that’s why we decided to invest in early learning, and heavily,” said the Prime Minister.

Dr Gonzi said that various projects at schools around Malta and Gozo made a difference to children’s lives. “A total of 138 schools have had work done to them in the past five years and that is no mean feat. It certainly makes a difference to learn in a bright, colourful modern environment rather than being in drab surroundings,” he said.

Dr Gonzi said that the schools in Malta today offer the best quality education. “We made this investment in education, all the while whittling down the budget deficit. The PN was never a Scrooge when it came to education and health,” said the Prime Minister.

He also spoke about Matsec board re-sits. “It is a barefaced lie to say that the date for Matsec re-sits has changed. Leave our students alone, let them study in peace as many of them have exams around the corner. All you have to do is look at the relevant website, a page has been online for weeks now showing that the dates have not, and will not change,” said Dr Gonzi.

He also said that the PN was the party which introduced inclusive education. “People with a disability deserve every chance to better themselves through education and we make no distinction between them and others,” he said.

Dr Gonzi also said that it emerged from a meeting with the Malta Union of Teachers that more educators were needed. “We need more teachers. We want more people to study beyond secondary school. We will have to expand the physical infrastructure of learning institutions, but we also need teachers,” said Dr Gonzi.

He said the MLP’s notion of a reception class meant that each and every child in Malta and Gozo would be leaving school one year later than at present. “By telling people to repeat a year, the MLP is saying that we are a nation of failures. This reception class thing is scandalous and no consultation took place over it,” said Dr Gonzi.

He also warned people about the way the MLP was misquoting a UK peer, Lord Adonis, when speaking about the reception class. “In the UK they have nursery, then reception, then they head into primary school. It is the same system as ours! We have Kinder 1, Kinder 2, then primary,” he said. He said that the MLP was proposing Kinder 1, Kinder 2 and then reception.

“The MLP already ruined one generation of people through their fiddling with the educational system and it also wanted to shut down church and independent schools. We took to the streets to avert that,” he said.

Dr Gonzi said the government would be offering better stipends for courses that are deemed to be under attended and needed for the development of the country. Dr Gonzi said that Malta had the highest growth rate in Europe for those who opted to continue post secondary education. “10 years ago, under an MLP government, the percentage stood at 40. Now it stands at 70. Is that enough? No. We want to raise the bar to 85 per cent to be in line with the Lisbon Agenda goals,” concluded Dr Gonzi.