Public urged to participate in Matsec system review

Education Minister Louis Galea yesterday invited students, parents, teachers and all those involved in the education process to make suggestions on what changes should be made to the Matsec system.

In recent years, a number of changes have been made to the system, which replaced the British-oriented examinations system 10 years ago. "However," Dr Galea said, "a re-evaluation of the system is now necessary since what applied 10 years ago does not necessarily apply today; circumstances have changed and we can see the fruits and the failures of the current system."

In March, Dr Galea appointed a board of experts to review the system: Grace Grima, Raymond Camilleri, Saviour Chircop and Frank Ventura.

"Now the board's conclusions on what should be retained and what should be changed has to be based on reactions, views and suggestions from the public, which is why we are launching a public consultation today," the education minister said.

Dr Galea said this period of examinations was chosen to launch the consultation process so that the immediate experience was recorded as much as possible, at a time when it is first-hand. The review board has launched a website where people can post their reactions.

The experts pointed out that people can send in their suggestions by post, fax or by e-mail. All reactions would be noted. They said that while it was important for data gathering purposes for the identity and age of the person filing the suggestion to be specified, all data would be confidential, and personal details would not be published in the final report.

"Should we continue using the A paper and B paper system?" the review group asked. According to the system in operation, in fact, students can sit for paper A or B, the latter being slightly more easy than paper A. The idea was to give a chance to more students to sit for and obtain a matriculation certificate.

"Is the current system giving us a quality education or are exams acting as an obstacle to quality?" the board also asked.

The review board will hold a series of focus interviews with a random sample of the population as part of the data-collecting exercise.

The Matsec re-evaluation process, which should end within 18 months of its launch, will seek to review a number of aspects clustered in four main areas: an operations review on how the present exams system is affecting families, individuals sitting for exams, educational institutions and employers; a quality assurance review, or whether Matsec was really turning out to be the quality certificate it was meant to be; a reassessment of the system's main aims, and establishing alternative structures wherever the present system has failed.