The government has enlarged its complement of learning support assistants to 1,314 over the past year to cater for the special needs of 1,947 state school students.

Primary and secondary schools were undergoing major reform to provide a level playing field for children to succeed, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday.

State schools were being equipped to deal with students of mixed abilities as part of the process of eliminating selectivity and smoothening out the transition from primary to secondary education.

Dr Gonzi was speaking during a visit to the St Ignatius College Ħandaq Boys' Secondary School, accompanied by Mrs Gonzi, Education Minister Dolores Cristina and Parliamentary Secretary Clyde Puli.

Touring the school, he was introduced to a group of students taking part in tailor-made sessions within a learning support zone. Students are referred to the zone if they have specific social and emotional behavioural difficulties. Its objective is to provide full support to students who are, or risk, being marginalised because of these difficulties.

The introduction of mixed ability classrooms will be supported by "setting", which groups students according to their educational level in the subject areas of mathematics, English and Maltese.

Students are divided randomly in other subjects. As opposed to streaming, students are given special attention in particular subjects of specific importance.

Providing laptops during exams to two students with severe dyslexia was described as a "breakthrough" by Dr Gonzi.

"Let us provide our students with opportunities to show us what they know rather than keeping them back because of what they don't know," he said.

Looking at the school's spacious laboratories, he praised the school's introduction of fresh assessment methods, such as allowing students to express their understanding of certain practical experiments verbally as opposed to constantly churning out laboratory reports.

Dr Gonzi reserved his last word for teachers, who he said were bringing extraordinary changes to the classroom environment through innovative teaching methods.

The introduction of mixed ability classrooms had challenged teachers but it was an opportunity that brought out the best of the teaching profession, he said.