Alternattiva Demokratika yesterday underlined the need for smaller schools to ensure more inclusion in the educational process.

This should better enable us to reach the aims of educational justice

AD spokesman for education Mario Mallia said that unlike large schools, students feel cared for in smaller schools.

“This is having a strong impact on learning. Just as important is the need to ensure that by making good use of existing resources, the number of children in our classes is smaller.

“This should better enable us to reach the aims of educational justice within the recent educational reforms based on mixed ability teaching,” he told a news conference.

AD said it was disappointed that the discussion on educational proposals was launched with the promise of computer tablets.

While AD supports the need to continue training students in IT skills, it feels this should entail a thought-out process which ensures technology is supported by the necessary training and infrastructure.

AD also said statistics about the number of students in post-secondary institutions who did not manage to complete their course should be published.

Mr Mallia also said it was time to see whether, within a context of inclusion, the country should consider a co-education system with girls and boys learning together.

AD chairman Michael Briguglio said the country needs to take note of its levels of early school leavers, illiteracy and cross-class representation at post-secondary and tertiary levels which remain low compared to the EU average.