A Labour government would launch a nationwide strategy against illiteracy and empower teachers and heads of schools to take the lead and propose initiatives, according to party leader Joseph Muscat.

Unveiling the first part of his party’s “concrete education roadmap”, Dr Muscat yesterday also said Malta would become the first EU member state to implement a nationwide tablet project for schoolchildren.

Free tablets would be given to children in the fourth year of primary school as part of an “unprecedented” fight against illiteracy and digital illiteracy.

Flanked by education spokesman Evarist Bartolo and culture spokesman Owen Bonnici, Dr Muscat said Labour would not revolutionise education in Malta but build on the good that had been done.

Labour would implement the recommendations of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), an international report on illiteracy whose recommendations for Malta have yet to be published.

Dr Muscat said further education would remain free for everyone as the Government had to increase the number of students. He stressed that stipends would not be removed as they were in 1996 – an issue he willingly apologised about.

“I am the first party leader to be a product of the stipend system and I want to make sure my children also benefit from it,” he said.

Mr Bartolo pointed out that Labour’s decision to turn the stipends into part-loans was done against his wishes because of the financial situation left behind by the Nationalist Party.

Dr Muscat said a Labour Government would also empower teachers and heads of schools in their fight against illiteracy by inverting the top-down approach currently being followed. Labour would also beef up libraries in schools and towns as well as the National Library.

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