Labour’s education spokesman, Carmelo Abela, has defended his party’s proposal to introduce a reception class between kindergarten and primary school, saying it would better prepare schoolchildren.

The proposal was approved by the MLP general conference over the weekend and drew criticism from Education Minister Louis Galea on Monday. He said it would mean a repeated year even for children who did not need to repeat a year.

Mr Abela said the reception class would not amount to a repeated year, and it was teachers who had proposed it in the first place.

He said the reception class would enable the country to better fight illiteracy and strengthen school children in basic skills.

Furthermore, thanks to this new class, all children would sit for their Junior Lyceum exam when aged 11. A large number were currently only 10 years old, he said.

The Labour Party was well aware of the capital and human resources investment needed for the introduction of the reception class but the interests of schoolchildren came first, Mr Abela said.