It started at 9am when Joseph Muscat held a press conference to explain Labour’s education roadmap.
“Whether it is iPad or Samsung... this is the future,” he said, pledging to equip schoolchildren with free tablets as part of a strategy against illiteracy and digital illiteracy.
This “cutting edge” scheme followed similar initiatives in countries like Australia, which has introduced a one-laptop-per-child scheme.
Malta would become the first EU country to implement a nationwide strategy of this kind, he added.
Labour’s plan would benefit around 4,000 fourth-year primary school children aged between eight and nine in Government, Church and independent schools. It would cost a maximum of €1.5 million per year.
“We would be prepared to foot the bill ourselves but we will set up a fund for private companies to donate as part of their corporate social responsibility,” Dr Muscat said.
Immediately, people rushed to comment boards online, with many opting to criticise the proposal.
Commentators poked fun at yet another “freebie” from Labour as internet memes immediately surfaced of Dr Muscat as Moses with his tablets.
Among the critics was the Prime Minister’s brother, Nationalist MP Michael Gonzi, who wrote on Twitter: “Labour to give tablet computer to all Year IV children – I’m starting to like PL’s “goody bag”, Not...”
But within an hour, Lawrence Gonzi addressed a press conference about the PN’s electoral programme, where he held back from criticising Labour’s proposal.
Instead, he went a step further, saying that the PN would equip “all” primary and secondary schoolchildren as well as teachers with tablets in a drive to continue to apply technology in schools.
The tablets would be compatible with the interactive whiteboards installed over the past years by the PN.
Teachers were a crucial part of the PN’s strategy, he said, adding that plans were also in hand for schoolbooks to be provided electronically and included with the tablets.
The announcement sparked a flurry of activity online as tablets managed to replace energy as the hottest electoral issue.
Nationalists quickly revised their claim that Labour’s plan was a Socialist “gimmick”. Some even praised their party for going the whole hog instead of ‘discriminating’ against schoolchildren above fourth year.
Meanwhile, several Labourites accused the PN of “copying” and others pointed out the enormous project came without a price tag.
Estimates suggest it could cost in excess of €20 million, around the same amount of money the country spends on stipends.
“If Muscat is Moses, Gonzi is Jesus himself,” said one online commentator.
Many poked fun at both parties for tripping over each other in their enthusiasm to buy votes by promising to hand out free tablets to students. The story even made headlines abroad, with Reuters and Yahoo News describing it as a pre-electoral “tablet war”.
But one important question remains regardless of which party wins the election: which side will Malta take in the never-ending war between Apple and Samsung?