Only 29.5 per cent of students obtained six passes or more in last year's SEC exam, Fr Charles Mallia, a representative of heads of schools, said yesterday.

Students need six SEC passes, equivalent to GCE 'O' levels, or more in order to be able to proceed to post-secondary schooling.

Out of a total of 5,245 children born in 1986, 3,699, or 70.5 per cent, either did not apply to sit for the SEC exam or did not pass in six subjects. And 23.6 per cent, or 1,237, did not sit for the exam, Fr Mallia pointed out.

"This means that the SEC exam is within reach of only 29.5 per cent of students.

"The remaining 70.5 per cent should follow a different syllabus on subjects that appeal to them and instead of the SEC exam, they would sit for a General Certificate of Education exam.

"The General Certificate of Education would be recognised by the Malta College of Arts Science and Technology," Fr Mallia said.

Fr Mallia was speaking at a forum on the implementation of the National Minimum Curriculum at the Forum Hotel in St Andrew's.

Organised by the NMC council, the forum was attended by members of the Matsec board, heads of school and teachers.

Charles Briffa, principal subject area officer for arts on the Matsec board, said the idea of the forum was to strengthen the cooperation between the Matsec board, the Education Division, state and private schools and the university.

The Matsec board sets out the SEC exams, the matriculation exams, which are equivalent to 'A' levels, and the intermediate exams forming part of the university entry requirements.

"The idea behind the forum is to see where and how the National Minimum Curriculum and Matsec are influencing each other.

"Focus groups made up of educators and parents have highlighted points in the NMC that ought be fine tuned," Dr Briffa said.

Dr Briffa said the workshops at the forum would look into whether the definition of formative assessment in the NMC tallied with the perception of formative assessment that the focus groups have come out with.

Earlier, Education Minister Louis Galea said that by next year, decisions had to be taken so that the Matsec exams would reflect the standards of the NMC.

The changes agreed upon should be introduced in phases in a way that they would all be in place by the 2007 exams.

The education division, the university and MCAST had to see how the Matsec structures could be strengthened and the involvement of teachers increased, in order to become more student friendly.

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