Ongoing changes to the education system are targeted at ending the obsession with exams, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said this morning.

Addressing a press conference to highlight education-related Budget measures announced on Monday, Mr Bartolo said that spending in the sector would continue to grow, with an increase a €35 million increase in expenditure next year.

This, he added, did not include the improvements to teachers’ conditions, insisting that talks with the Malta Union for Teachers on the issue were well underway.

Pointing to the removal of exams fees, a Labour Party electoral pledge being rolled out in the coming years, Mr Bartolo said that such measures were part of changes emphasising that exams are part of the education process and not ultimate aim.

“I don’t want schools to be like farms, where we raise children to simply meet their end at exams,” the minister told journalists.

Mr Bartolo also announced that as of this morning, all exam past-papers have been made available online, as part of efforts to instil the idea that publically-funded material should be freely available to all.

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