In its first 20 months, the Labour government had demonstrated a lack of direction, consultation and planning to raise the level of education, Opposition spokesman Joe Cassar told Parliament yesterday.

The 2015 Budget failed miserably on early, primary and secondary education.

Dr Cassar said Education Minister Evarist Bartolo had tried to shift the blame and attempted to cover up his political responsibility by appointing biased inquiries – one on the postponement of Skola Sajf and the second when a young boy was found in the street after running away from school in Fgura.

It was good to invest in technology, but tablets were modern tools that could only come into their own after a solid basis had been set up and was getting results, Dr Cassar said. It was easy to throw the middle schools out of the system, and parents were unhappy and disappointed at the lack of profound thought and planning.

Some educators were afraid to speak their minds, and this could not lead to good development, he said.

The outgoing government had laid plans for the construction and maintenance of schools, but 20 months into the new legislature not even one new school had been completed.

The sole initiative for childcare in this Budget was the announcement of three new Smart Kid childcare centres in the private sector. The ones at San Ġwann and Gżira were open, but work on the Żurrieq centre had been stopped in spite of permits in hand.

While students were required to apply for stipends online, they were not told they needed an e-ID. The Finance Minister did not say fees for Matsec examinations had been raised. Although he said that income tax on stipends would be removed, there were only a handful of students who would benefit from this scheme.

The different style of the current government had brought about delays in the building of the new Mcast campus. The government had lost its credibility as it had no plans for training Learning Support Assistants, or LSAs.

Concluding, Dr Cassar said the new government had found a reformed education system that only required fine-tuning.

The Opposition, he added, was ready to contribute with loyal scrutiny to improve the sector.