Although secondary school and Junior Lyceum students were no longer divided in theory, streaming still existed on students’ performance in mathematics, English and Maltese, the Labour Party’s education spokesman, Evarist Bartolo, said, calling for an overhaul of the system.

The PL, he said, agreed with removing the distinction between regular secondary school students and those who made it through the Junior Lyceum exams. He said that the brutally rigid selection of the previous system had been equi-valent to “violence” because it categorised children at an early stage and left the under-achievers with the stigma of being ignorant.

However, speaking at a news conference addressed jointly with MP Owen Bonnici, Mr Bartolo said that though students were not being separated in buildings, streaming still existed within the same school.

Mr Bartolo said that for the reform to be really successful, the education authorities had to make sure that teachers and heads of school were on board with the project and were provided with the necessary training and the financial means to support such a change.

He noted that the demands on teachers were greater and this was why they had to be adequately trained.

He pointed out that the number of fifth formers who did not continue to study was too high at 1,800, or 36 per cent of 5,000.

The figure was later denied by the Education Ministry, which said that, according to official statistics issued by the National Commission for Higher Education, 73 per cent of students aged 17 years had continued studying in 2010. The number had been 43 per cent in 1999.

Mr Bartolo said a problem in the curriculum that had not yet been resolved was how Maltese and English would be taught. Although the Maltese people had the advantage of a bilingual society, this also created a disadvantage because most people spoke Maltese in everyday life when most subjects were taught in English. An emphasis on teaching English at an early age should be made because children were being exposed to the language from a very young age through the internet and computer games.

Children should also be exposed to sciences as a fun subject from an early age.

Mr Bartolo criticised the fact that a number of vocational subjects would be introduced from this scholastic year against a fee. The students most likely to opt for such subjects would probably be those who could least afford them.

Dr Bonnici, spokesman on higher education, quoted from the Angelou Economics study commissioned by the government last year which had said that “despite improvements in the education system, Malta still lags behind in achievements at the upper levels of education”. Malta, he said, could not risk being left behind.

He called for increased investment even in terms of lifelong learning.