Agatha Barbara became known as a warm defender of economic and social reforms. She was Malta's first and until the end of the 1990s only woman cabinet minister. When MLP came to power for the first time in 1955, she was appointed as education minister by Dom Mintoff from 1955 to 1958. She undertook comprehensive reforms: instituted compulsory full-time basic education for all children, established a teacher training college and special schools for the disabled, made secondary school free and provided science classes for both girls and boys. In 1958 relations between the British and the Maltese deteriorated. Protests erupted in the streets and Mintoff resigned. Barbara participated in the demonstrations and was sentenced to 43 days "with hard labour".