Nearly half – 49% – of respondents prefer the Nationalist party’s policies on education, with only 32.2% preferring Labour’s equivalent policies, the MaltaToday survey reveals.
The survey, held a week ago amid a storm of controversy on Labour’s reception class proposal, shows that the PN’s scaremongering campaign which dubbed the reception class proposal a “repeater class” has left an impact on the electorate.
The “repeater class” mantra now features in every speech by PN exponents to the extent that the Prime Minister himself warned that a Labour victory would amount to five years in a repeater class for the whole country.
The MaltaToday survey was held days before Alfred Sant counter-attacked with his own dose of scaremongering accusing the government of planning to close down junior lyceums and to abolish the junior lyceum exams.
Effectively the two parties have now turned education into a game of political football leaving little space for intelligent debate on this matter.
Labour’s educational policies are the least popular among those aged between 18 and 34 years. Significantly, respondents who have not disclosed their voting intentions are also sceptical of Labour’s policies. Among non-committed voters, 53% think that the PN has the best policy on education.

Reception or repeater?
Although approved by a general conference two years ago and the subject of consultation with the Malta Union of Teachers and other stakeholders, Labour’s reception class proposal only became a subject of controversy after the topic was raised by Alfred Sant himself in his speech concluding the Labour general conference on the eve of the electoral campaign.
Subsequently the PN dubbed the Labour proposal as a “repeater class” which would force all students to do an extra year of schooling.
The MLP insists that this proposal is simply aimed at ensuring a smoother transition from kindergartens into primary schooling, in a way that students achieve better results.
While the MUT has expressed scepticism on Labour’s proposal, educational experts like Prof. Peter Mayo have welcomed the idea arguing that strengthening the early learning experience is fundamental to help the socially disadvantaged.
In its electoral programme the MLP also promises to ensure that classes do not cater for more than 25 students and that students will receive their textbooks for free.
The PN’s programme promises that the new system of educational colleges will ensure “a smooth transition from kinder and primary to secondary level based on a system of continuous assessment and benchmarking exams.”
This is a clear indication that the PN intends to change the nature of the 11-plus examination which labels 40% of our students as failures. The MLP’s manifesto does not even mention educational colleges.
AD scores low on education: a reflection that education has so far featured very little in the party’s electoral campaign. The party has only reacted to the ongoing debate on education on Monday with its spokesperson Mario Mallia taking a firm line against the political football at the expense of children’s education during a Broadcasting Authority debate.
While finding positive elements in Labour’s proposal, Mallia also defended educational colleges and the attempt to decrease the importance of the junior lyceum exam.