Carmelo Abela, Labour Party spokesman on education, said the Nationalist Party was outstanding in the election campaign not only on twisting facts but also on abusing the children attending state schools. This was unacceptable and should be condemned, he said.

He wondered if the data protection legislation was still in place and who was responsible for it. Was the children commissioner following developments? he asked.

Without specifying what abuses he was referring to, Mr Abela said Lawrence Gonzi had no right to speak the way he was doing, partisanly in schools and outside them. Children in Malta were not Dr Gonzi’s property he said, and as a father and politician he was not prepared to trust his children in the hands of those exploiting them for partisan aims.

Mr Abela said Labour would retain the students’ stipends and improve them by removing VAT. But Dr Gonzi’s government had reduced them by 27 per cent for the majority of students, who each had lost e2,329.

The Nationalist Party was also being deceptive about the Matsec re-sits and neither had it ever denied that examination fees were going to be increased by e4.66 per examination, and the paper revision fee would be e116.47.