Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi underlined the PN’s commitment to education as one of the pillars of its policies, saying this morning that it wanted 85 percent of young people to continue their studies beyond secondary school.

He said that in 10 years, the percentage of young people in post-secondary courses had risen from 40 percent to 70 percent, but there was need for this growth rate to be maintained and increased.

Speaking at a press conference outside St Benedict College, Dr Gonzi said the PN was the party for education in Malta and the promise it was making to parents was clear: They could rest assured that the education of their children would continue to progress.

Malta, he said, had a sound education system but there were challenges which had to be faced, one of which was to encourage more young people to further their education.

Another challenge was to ease the transition from primary to secondary school. This was an issue which had started being addressed in this legislature. Examinations between the primary and secondary levels should be there to identify the schoolchildren’s talents and not to create a race among the pupils. Creating tension in the pupils was not helpful. The colleges in state education were being set up for a seamless transition from primary to secondary schooling.

Labour, Dr Gonzi said, had reached a different conclusion, arguing there was a problem in the transition from kindergarten to primary school. This was a very serious mistake which would have very serious implications: children would lose a year which they could never recover. This would also have consequences on the country's labour force in the future. Kindergarten classes were already adequately preparing pupils for primary school and introducing a so-called reception class, which was nothing but a repeater class, would be very wrong. The MLP was going back to the mistaken experiments of the past, and he was appealing to the MLP to reconsider, Dr Gonzi said.

Dr Gonzi stressed, for three times, that the government did not intend to change the September date when Matsec resits are held. People who visited the Matsec website could see the dates were there and they had not changed. The government wanted students to move on to further education as quickly as possible and would not hold anybody back.

Going into various proposals being made by the PN, Dr Gonzi said the new colleges system would be strengthened and accompanied by a modern system of assessment, instead of the tensions of exams.

The school building and maintenance programme would be maintained.

A network of childcare centres would be created and the system of learning support assistance (facilitators) would be extended.

The e-learning strategy would be a core element of the education set-up, with a computer for every four children (instead of one per 11 as at present) and a laptop for every teacher. This would put Malta the top country in the EU.

There would be greater focus on research and innovation, including research fellowships and a €1 million euro research fund.

Students stipends would be retained, including particular support for Gozitan students and students studying in the EU. Assistance to parents who send their children to private independent schools would be stepped up.

The University and other post secondary institutions would enjoy a higher budget and a new Mcast campus would be built, Dr Gonzi said.

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