Labour's education spokesman, Evarist Bartolo, said today that the draft national curriculum was ignoring social realities.

Speaking at a press conference, he also said that children needed to be medically screened from a young age to ensure that students with learning problems or disabilities are given the necessary help from day one.

"It is unacceptable and obscene that we are noticing these problems in students when they are six or eight years old," he said.

He pointed out that the draft National Curriculum Framework did not mention the issue.

Mr Bartolo stressed that the education reform was needed, wanted and inevitable. The consultation process on the draft would come to an end at the end of December and the PL was presenting its feedback.

This was based on the principles of human rights, social justice and economic development. He was concerned that the reform focused mainly on the latter.

Mr Bartolo said the reform seemed to assume that all students were motivated and ignored social realities - that not all children are motivated and want to learn.

He cautioned against the "reform fatigue" that teachers were facing with too many changes going on at once and added that the reform seemed to ignore the ongoing e-learning platform strategy.

He stressed on the importance of teaching children different languages during the early school years and introducing vocational subjects.

Throughout the consultation period , he said, teachers were not heard enough. He pledged that while a Labour government would build on the current work, if need be, it would re-open consultation.