The Labour Party’s controversial reception class proposal clearly requires much thought and discussion, and according to John Bencini, the president of the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT), should not be an issue up for discussion during an electoral campaign.

Contacted by The Malta Independent following yet another heated discussion on the reception class proposal on Bondi+, broadcast on TVM on Monday, Mr Bencini said: “At this point I am lost. This is not something that should be discussed in the run-up to a general election”.

The Labour Party has toned down the issue slightly, even though it had initially made it clear that the proposal – which is aimed at introducing an extra class between kindergarten and the first year of primary school – had been approved by the Labour general conference and would be implemented should the party be elected to government.

After that, the MLP said the proposal was not cast in stone and would have to be discussed with the stakeholders.

During the programme on TVM on Monday, Nationalist candidate Georg Sapiano challenged Labour leader Alfred Sant to say whether the MLP planned to introduce the reception class in every private, public and Church schools.

In reply, Dr Sant said it would not be imposed on anyone and added that the proposal would be discussed across the board. This changed Labour’s original idea – which intended to introduce the system across the whole education spectrum – as private schools could choose to stay out.

Sources from the education sector said that this could mean that the Education Act would have to be changed to be able to implement the MLP proposal.

If the additional class is to form part of compulsory education system, it cannot possibly be implemented in public schools and Church schools, but not in private schools, since this would go against the principle of the National Minimum Curriculum.

Asked to comment on this, the MUT president said he could no longer understand what was being said as regards the MLP proposal.

He explained that the MUT had received the Labour Party’s draft policy for the education sector in May 2006.

“We were then invited to go and discuss the whole draft policy with the MLP. Our reaction was that practically two-thirds of the policy was based on what the union had long been saying and what it had even discussed with the government.

“This was the same time when we had been discussing the reform of the educational system with the government and a lot of the ideas were common with the MLP policy,” said Mr Bencini.

However, he said, when it came to point 11.3 of the MLP’s draft policy, the MUT clearly said it disagreed with the introduction of an extra year.

Mr Bencini added that from the MUT’s experience, it was clear that the majority of children progress from kindergarten to the first year of primary school without difficulty.

“Kindergarten assistants have a lot of experience and are very dedicated. They are among the best we have in Europe. Nonetheless, we still want to strengthen kindergarten,” he said.

This was one of the issues forming part of the discussions for the education reform and a lot of importance was given to children who need more assistance to develop their skills.

Those wishing to work as kindergarten assistants will have to be in possession of a diploma or degree course in early childhood education in a couple of years time, said Mr Bencini, adding that courses will also be provided for kindergarten assistants wishing to further their studies in the field.

He said that following the meeting between MUT and MLP in summer 2006, the MUT suggested the party considers the reception class idea again and said that if need be the union was ready to discuss the proposal properly.

“However, nothing happened after that and we never met again to discuss the proposal,” said Mr Bencini.

He said that if the Labour Party was holding the proposal in abeyance for a while, then that was positive.

“The issue should be completely forgotten from the discussion and come what may, following the 8 March election, we would want the proposal to be discussed among educators and social partners, not politicians,” said Mr Bencini.

As he has stressed before, he said the Maltese problem in the education sector was not the level of education, but the system.

“We have an exam-oriented culture in schools. They are issues such as this that have to be discussed. We only have three child psychologists to serve the whole country, when in real terms we would need 20.

“We also have serious problems as regards students’ services. We lack human resources. Politicians should be discussing ways of encouraging more people to study and ways of improving teachers’ salaries in order to address the problem of supply. These are the issues that should be discussed in the run-up to an election,” he said.