Students sitting for yesterday’s religion O-level were asked to explain what a Christian should say when faced with someone justifying divorce when there is no mutual love between couples.

The pro-divorce lobby called a press conference to condemn this and other instances where they claimed children were being exploited by the campaign against divorce.

Teachers told their students that if they justified divorce legislation in their answer they were likely to fail, the pro-divorce movement said, after receiving calls from angry parents.

Deborah Schembri, who heads the movement, said that in another incident, Year Six students at a school in Żebbuġ were told to mark ‘No’ on ballot sheets in a mock divorce referendum during a PSD lesson.

Labour MP Evarist Bartolo, who forms part of the movement, labelled this behaviour as shameful and said he had complained about the incident and was presented with the “excuse” that this was part of a lesson on democracy.

The Yes movement said it got to know about this incident from a mother whose son had asked her how she was going to vote.

Dr Schembri said anti-divorce leaflets had also been handed out to schoolchildren.

She said this was instilling prejudice and could unfairly involve children in conflicts between their parents.

She said the No camp had been exploiting children throughout and was doing this even on its latest billboards which show children asking voters to vote ‘No’ on their behalf.

“Which children are we voting on behalf of? Those in happy families? Or those who are forced to be brought up out of wedlock? Divorce legislation does not affect the children of happily married couples, but it improves the situation of those born of second relationships,” Dr Schembri said.

She said the billboards of the Yes movement also used children but not in an exploitative manner. Children were simply used to explain the predicament that some of them were forced to be in and how divorce offered a solution.

When contacted, a spokesman for the Education Ministry said he would look into the Matsec issue as he had not yet heard about the matter.

However, referring to the Żebbug primary school incident he denied that the teacher had directed pupils to vote in any particular way.

He said the lesson had focused on the issue of democracy – as prescribed by the syllabus. Two children were asked to speak in favour and against divorce and the class took a vote.

“Out of a class of 15, nine voted yes and six voted no. So, the majority voted yes,” the spokesman said, rubbishing claims that students were forced to vote no.