The upcoming referendum and local council elections will cause a “minimum disturbance” to schools, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said.

The voting booths, and other equipment set up in government schools for the April 11 vote will be easy to remove, he said.

“Everyone involved in the education department gets a fright when they hear an election is coming, because of the impact it has on schools. This year, however, we want to mitigate that,” Mr Bartolo said.

The minister said he had held meetings with the Electoral Commission as well as the Opposition to figure out the best way to minimise the disturbance to schools.

Officials said no school days will be lost because of preparations for classrooms to be turned into voting centres. It would also be ensured that the moving about of furniture would not be held during school hours.

The minister was speaking on the front steps of the Luqa Primary School, during a visit to witness the government’s new literacy promotion policy in action.

Classrooms were brought to life by literacy ambassadors such as singer Ira Losco and television personality Xandru Grech, who read classic children’s books to encourage youngsters to pick up reading.

Mr Bartolo said the government had drawn up a 100 point policy to address literacy following a series of damning reports on Malta’s low literacy rates.

Some 80 per cent of the policy has already been implemented and around 8,000 children had already taken part in workshops. Some 50,000 new books had also been purchased for schools, he said.