Matsec consultations raise burning questions

How can the state justify the fact that 30 per cent of school-leavers have no certification to show for all their years of schooling when they go out looking for a job?

This is one of the questions being raised during consultations which the committee reviewing the Matsec examinations system has been holding with a broad spectrum of interested parties.

"Ten per cent of school leavers fail all their Secondary Education Certificate exams and another 20 per cent don't even sit for them," said Grace Grima, who is coordinating the committee's work.

"In the light of these figures, people we have consulted have asked 'why should the SEC exams have to be responsible for certifying all school leavers; should there be another system of benchmarking, another form of school-leaving certification?"

"What are the skills and competencies that the labour market is looking for? Are they just academic skills? How should these skills be certified?"

The review was launched in March with a view to strengthening the system and making it more relevant to the labour market and, at matriculation level, to the requirements of university study.

The committee's brief is to examine how the current system operates, its impact on Maltese society, its objectives and its quality assurance aspect. It will then come up with an alternative structure after also looking at equivalent examination systems abroad.

Among those consulted so far have been parents, students, teachers, school heads, employers, educational thinkers, policy makers and MPs.

Dr Grima said that another issue being raised was whether, at SEC level, the exams should continue to be differentiated into Paper A and the easier Paper B, a set-up aimed at giving weaker students the chance to gain certification, albeit with lower grades.

One view being expressed was that there would be no need for this system if an alternative form of school-leaving certification could be devised to run alongside the SEC exams.

And should the SEC exams be held later in the year in order to give schools more time to teach the vast syllabus that students need to cover? At present, the main session of the SEC exams is held in May. Some of those consulted view this as cutting the academic year too short, said Dr Grima.

As for the matriculation exams, which qualify sixth-formers for university entrance, the committee is examining whether the components of these exams are valid enough for specialisation and whether they provide students with the skills to cope with academic communication.

Students heading for university currently need a pass in Systems of Knowledge and another five subjects at advanced or intermediate level in order to qualify for university - one arts subject, one from the humanities, one science subject, and any other two.

The compulsory nature of Systems of Knowledge is being questioned. The subject was introduced in order to give students a broader exposure than they would otherwise have gained through studying a narrow spectrum of subjects. However, it is being argued that the spread of the other compulsory subjects allow for a broad enough education, said Dr Grima.

It is also being suggested that perhaps English and Maltese should be made compulsory, two subjects in which 18-year-olds seeking a job in today's market almost certainly need to be competent.

One element in the matriculation exams causing "a lot of complaints", said Dr Grima, is the fact that students can at most resit only two of their compulsory subjects.

She explained that this was because the supplementary exams at advanced level were held over two days, which logistically allowed candidates to resit just Systems of Knowledge and another subject, while at intermediate level only one exam could be taken because the resits were all held on the same day.

Some of those consulted have asked why the matriculation resits should not be available in all the subjects, said Dr Grima.