Bad reception sets the tone

They're off and the harsh tone set to prevail during the electoral campaign was confirmed even before the starting gun was fired.

Opposition Leader Alfred Sant resumed his repetitive focal charge of incompetence and corruption at the Nationalists. The PN, on its part, has launched a fierce attack over Labour's plans for education. Education and foreign affairs (EU membership aside) usually have considerable bi-partisan approach. This time PN spokesmen, from Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi down, have followed the approach used by Education Minister Louis Galea to rubbish a key Labour proposal.

Back in July, the MLP said that, if elected, it would introduce a reception class to welcome students to the primary level. The party did not flesh out the idea, other than to say it would aim to reduce the prevailing level of illiteracy and lack of numeracy among some 10 per cent of school leavers. At the time, the PN and the government said little about the proposal. This being Malta even educators kept away from discussing it.

Now, with the certainty that the proposal will be included in Labour's electoral programme, the PN is projecting it as a useless and wasteful move that would effectively punish all school children by making them "repeat" a class. Irrespective of whether a reception class is required or not, the "repeat" charge seems to be pure spin. One common definition of a reception class, used in the UK's national strategies on education, is the following:

A reception class is typically organised to promote the social skills and develop mathematical understanding of young children through stories, songs, rhythms and finger games, sand and water, construction on a large and small scale, imaginative play, outdoor play and playground games, cooking and shopping, two- or three-dimensional creative work with a range of materials and by observing numbers and patterns in the environment and daily routines.

The BBC, commenting on reception classes in the context of a national numeracy strategy, offers a simpler definition. It says that later (when children start Year One at the primary level) about an hour each day will be completely devoted to maths. In a reception class that is unlikely to be the case.

The class - says the BBC - is a mixture of whole class work, number rhymes and songs, counting, games, listening to number stories, learning and talking about number facts, taught group-working with other children, alone or with a classroom assistance. The aim is to prepare a child socially, academically and linguistically for the first grade. The class is effectively a foundation stage to achieve early learning goals among children aged between four and five.

Whatever else it may be, therefore, it is not a repetition class and it is sad to see Minister Galea, with all the professional support he has at his disposal, stoop to politically-charged fear mongering among parents.

Carmel Abela, Labour's shadow spokesman on education, said the proposal requires a lot of planning. It does, too. Its cost, however, should not be read in profligate terms, as the Nationalists are doing, but in whether a reception class is - or is not - required as an adjustment in the present kindergarten-to-primary transition. That is where an informed debate should take place, with decent professional input by qualified educationalists.

Perhaps it is useless to call for informed debate during the coming 33 days of the election campaign. But if the intelligence of electors is to be respected, serious discussion is required. The scarce fleshing out of the Labour proposal and the Nationalists' fierce reaction to it are anything but...