The Labour Party’s proposal to introduce a reception class is one that puts every child in the same boat, forcing them to repeat a year – “it is actually a repeating class, not a reception class” – and will have a negative effect on the system in general, said Education Minister Louis Galea yesterday.

He was addressing a press conference to react to Labour’s proposal to introduce a reception class between kindergarten and the first year of primary school, officially approved during the MLP’s annual general conference at the weekend.

Minister Galea criticised the proposal, saying that normally, the majority of five-year-olds would have developed the necessary skills to begin primary school education.

The Labour’s proposal puts everyone in the same boat and would be damaging to the majority of children forced to repeat a year unnecessarily, said Dr Galea.

“Objectively, this is another mistake on the part of the Labour Party, if you consider what’s best for our children and for the education system as a whole,” said Dr Galea.

“I have reflected on the proposal and discussed it with a number of teaching professionals. The Labour Party never answered the questions brought up with regard to this proposal.”

He said that in his view, there were a number of other MLP proposals that did not make sense and would be damaging to the education sector, and he would comment on these proposals in the coming days.

The current government has a vision, a strategy and a programme that is transforming the education system into a superior system, said Dr Galea, repeating the ministry’s slogan, “Helping our children succeed” (“Biex uliedna jirnexxu lkoll”).

The government has been introducing a number of strong measures to ensure that children encountering difficulties at some stage or another of their education are given the necessary help without having to keep everyone else at the same point, said Dr Galea.

He explained that after analysing the Labour Party’s proposal, it was found that an additional 220 classrooms and 220 teachers would be required to implement the proposal.

Apart from this, many schools, including state schools, but mostly Church schools and independent private schools, do not even have the physical capacity to introduce what the MLP is calling a reception class.

Moreover, Dr Galea questioned the means of finding qualified teachers to implement the proposal “unless we intend going back to the 1970s when just anyone was employed to teach,” he said.

Dr Galea said the implementation of the proposal would cost the government more than e4.2 million (Lm1.8 million) every year, considering a teacher’s average salary and excluding the other expenses to provide space, facilities and additional services. He said these funds could be made better use of for the benefit of children’s education.

As he further criticised the MLP proposal, the minister said parents sending their children to independent private schools will have to pay fees and other expenses for an extra year, even if their children would not necessarily need to repeat a year, as is generally the case.

The MLP said it made its proposal following a consultation process, said Dr Galea, asking: “Were parents consulted? Were students consulted? And were teachers and head teachers consulted?”.

Dr Galea went on to outline a number of the government’s measures forming part of its vision to have an inclusive education system at every level of students’ development.

He mentioned the government’s plans to introduce child care centres in schools, based on the concept of “educare”.

Asked by The Malta Independent whether the government was finding that space was a problem in this regard, he said that due to demographic changes, space capacity in a number of state schools was being made available.

The aim behind the introduction of these centres is to have capable people who would help stimulate children during the first two-and-a-half years of their life, said Dr Galea.

He said the government was soon going to open the first child care centres at Gharghur primary school, Luqa primary school, which was recently extended, and Paola parish centre.

Other projects that are either planned or already being implemented in the education sector include training for teachers, a new system for more effective psycho-social services, further support to students with special needs, as well as the presence of special teachers in the classroom to support students encountering difficulties.

Furthermore, the government is also introducing a system of continuous student assessment and profiling and providing teachers with time to better implement the curriculum by working closely with head teachers and their colleagues about a number of educational issues.

In his concluding remarks, Minister Galea said the government already launched a revision a the National Curriculum Framework and it also wants to strengthen and extend primary education programmes for parents to receive training to better understand their children and be better equipped to help them have a quality upbringing.