Labour Party spokesman on education Carmelo Abela said the Education Minister was making declarations about the MATSEC report which had never been made before.

This applied to what the minister was saying about the report relating to the MATSEC examination system, proposing that re-sits should be held in November-December, not in September as at present. This would mean that students wanting to continue with their education at the junior college and the university would waste a year, for having to wait that long.

Apart from this, the report also introduced fees that were e4.66 costlier for every subject, and the fee for a full revision of an examination paper would be e116.47.

Neither the government, nor the minister had ever commented about this report, or denied that its proposals would be implemented. Now, in an electoral campaign, they were saying everything would remain the same. Which begged the question, why did the minister ask for the report to be drawn up, if its main proposals were not going to be implemented.