Anthem for doomed youth

The facts speak loudly: the state school system still needs dramatic improvement if thousands of young people are to succeed and move on in life. Two-thirds of those who attend a state school at secondary level still leave 11 years of schooling without getting a pass in their Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) in English, Maths and Maltese. Year after year only 1,000 teenagers (a third) out of just over 3,000 attending Form 5 in area secondary schools and junior lyceums obtain a pass (Grade 1 to 5) in English, Maths and Maltese. The failure rate of over 65% is simply unacceptable.

The success rate of 33% hides a more terrible reality. While 70% of girls attending Form 5 in junior lyceums pass their SEC exam in English, Maths and Maltese just 52% of boys who attend junior lyceums pass these exams. The situation is abysmal in area secondary schools. Out of nearly 800 boys attending Form 5 in area secondary schools, less than 20 pass their English SEC exam, less than 50 get their Maths and Maltese Sec pass certificate. Less than 10% of boys attending Form 5 in area secondary schools pass their SEC exams in English, Maths and Maltese. The success rate for girls attending Form 5 in area secondary schools is double that of boys', but at less than 20% it is still dismal.

What kind of future lies in store for the over 2,000 teenagers who leave our state secondary schools every year without obtaining a pass in English, Maths and Maltese? What kind of job can they get in the 21st century knowledge economy?

Years have passed since the national minimum curriculum was launched amid much pomp and ceremony. Prescious time has been lost. Since the launching of the new curriculum, at least 10,000 young people have left school unqualified and unskilled. How has this curriculum improved the quality of the education that our youngsters get in area secondary schools and junior lyceums? Has it raised standards? Are more children succeeding in acquiring the skills, attitudes and competencies they need for the 21st century?

The answer is a resounding "no" for each and every one of these questions. At the present moment the only recognized certification that enables young people to continue studying after leaving secondary school (apart from ill-designed MCAST foundation courses) or to find a job is the SEC exam certificate. Teenagers leaving school without obtaining this certificate are branded as failures even though the SEC exam fails to measure the skills and competencies that they might have.

The results and the fact that only half of the Form 5 students in area secondary schools sit for SEC exams show that there is an urgent need to improve education for these students and raise standards. So far the half-baked and haphazard changes brought about by the new national curriculum have lacked a plan and a strategy for boys and girls attending area secondary schools.

Giving our young people a future

These students need schools, courses, teaching methods and exams that are relevant and meaningful for them. So far they still have to go to area secondary schools with junior lyceum and SEC syllabi and exams. These students have already failed the junior lyceum entrance exam. Five years later they are made to sit the same SEC exam that junior lyceum students sit for. No wonder that half of the students do not even bother to sit for the exam, knowing they do not stand a chance.

Despite all the nice rhetoric accompanying the new curriculum, the educational establishment is still bent on providing the same educational one-size-fits-all service to all students. The Nationalist government has lacked the courage and the vision shown by other countries with systems that offer both academic and vocational streams and produce far fewer illiterate and innumerate school leavers.

The Labour Party's educational proposals for area secondary schools include the introduction of modern vocational subjects, exams and certification in basic engineering, tourism studies, information technology, catering, agricultural studies, construction... where students learn by doing. Appropriate courses, exams and certification would be drawn up at SEC level involving the Education Division, MCAST, the University and the social partners. The Labour Party is in favour of building living and dynamic links between schools, society and business on every level.

Current findings in cognitive studies show that we all learn in different ways. Controversies on 'vocational' and 'academic' education are sterile, irrelevant and outdated. Mass education and uniformity in schools have failed and are failing thousands of our young people. Our schools need to change to be able to teach, assess and certify students in different ways, ensuring parity in diversity but most of all opening up new and exciting opportunities for our doomed youth.