The April to June Matsec exam session may be moved to June and July to allow teachers and students to finish the syllabus while the September supplementary session could be shifted to November and December under recommendations made in a report commissioned by the government.

According to the committee appointed to review the national examination system, students and teachers undergo a lot of pressure to cover syllabi.

The short academic year in Form V and in the second year of sixth form also seems to be fuelling the private lessons racket as parents view private tuition as necessary given that the scholastic year is not long enough to cover the "vast" syllabi at school, the committee found.

The 125-page report is entitled Matsec - Strengthening a National Examination System and was penned by Grace Grima, Raymond Camilleri, Saviour Chircop and Frank Ventura in October. It was completed 18 months after Education Minister Louis Galea appointed the committee to review the local assessment and certification system introduced in 1991.

It suggests that changing the September re-sit session would allow Matsec to offer "a full examination session" and do away with constraints of offering only "a limited number of subjects".

Tied to changes in the timing of the exam sessions is the committee's call to improve the Revision of Papers service to reflect better transparency for all students.

"If the timelines of the main session and the supplementary session are moved, then it would make it possible for students to have better access to feedback about their performance," the committee said.

Matsec should offer three levels of feedback in its revision process - a clerical check, a summary revision and a full revision, the committee proposed. Another recommendation is to move students' grades up or down following a revision. Currently, the grade can only be improved. The rapporteurs, who based their studies on interviews with stakeholders in the education system, addressed a series of issues ranging from the criticism levelled at examination papers to the evolution of syllabi.

It also examined whether assessment methods are evolving to reflect the changes since the British GCE 'O' level was replaced by the Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) in 1994 and the Matriculation Certificate (MC) took over 'A' levels in 1997.

Acknowledging that the system has been "a major achievement" as the Maltese 16 to 18-year-old certification system was accepted by international equivalency authorities, the review committee said there were still a number of students who came out of secondary school without a formal certificate either because they drop out of school or else fail to turn up for written exams.

Thus, the committee proposed the introduction of a "computerised examination system certifying functional competencies in five subject-areas namely Maltese, English, Mathematics, Science and Information Technology" - areas which the committee considers as basic functional competencies in today's society.

On the exams as such, the review said the current system focuses too much on theoretical content. "Matsec should aim to offer a number of vocational subjects for certification in the near future." It added that such examinations, based on a balanced mixture of good theory and practical performance, require the same rigorous preparation that exists in the traditional subjects.

As for the matriculation certificate, the committee called for a clear benchmark and consensus as to what constitutes an intermediate level in view of the existing "tension" between those who view intermediates as a bridge between a Sec level and an Advanced level and those who complain that a subject at intermediate level is virtually another advanced level subject.

In the reviewers' opinion, the controversial Systems of Knowledge project which "helps students improve their practical problem-solving abilities" is in line with pragmatic educational trends highlighting problem solving approaches, and is therefore worth keeping.

They noted, however, that there is no clear agreement on what constitutes an acceptable project, suggesting that students should be assessed by a 15-minute oral and a 3,000-word report.

Speaking about the structure and operations of the system, the reviewers said the Matsec unit, which administers the exams, is understaffed and that it is "unrealistic" to expect Matsec to function without more people with expertise in assessment, measurement and statistical analysis.

They suggested that teachers should be more involved in setting the syllabus and in assessment procedures, while stronger links should be made with foreign boards to counteract the insularity of the system.

The report calls for the increase by Lm2 in examination fees for each subject partly to fund some needed structural changes in the Matsec set-up and to possibly raise markers' remuneration.