Streaming and the 11+ exam - what is the way forward?

One of the current debates on policy issues on education in Malta that has long been on the agenda is about differentiation and transition systems in our schools. This debate has now acquired a new urgency due to the reforms that are occurring in our schooling system, particularly the restructuring of the Education Division into two new directorates, and the creation of a system of networked colleges.

At the heart of this debate lies the issue of the 11+ or, as it is better known, the Junior Lyceum examination, which was introduced with the reform in secondary schooling in Malta for boys and girls in the state school sector that created the junior lyceums in 1981, as well as the Common Entrance examination which is its equivalent in the Church school sector (limited, however, to boys).

In the state schools the issue of the 11+ exam raises such related questions as those of streaming and setting and the just allocation of resources, though, of course, streaming and setting are not necessary consequences of the 11+ examination, as the non-streaming practices in most of the Church schools show.

They were policy decisions that were made at the beginning and that were supposed to render the examination more efficient in identifying suitable material for the new junior lyceums. They also had a political agenda; that of raising the status of the new junior lyceums (this translated into the policy of prioritising their resourcing) as quality schools in competition with the Church schools.

Since then, the rationale of the junior lyceum, or better still, of selection by ability at the 11+ threshold, has periodically come under criticism, as has the whole philosophy of selection and the mechanism of the 11+ exam itself as the tool for selection. Many of the objections to it are moral and political.

But on a different level, the policy demands of lifelong learning, which are the policy demands of the European Union (of which Malta is now a member), question the politics of early selection on the grounds that it is economically wasteful and psychologically harmful for future workers in an environment where the quality of the workforce is regarded as the most important asset and where learning must accompany working. The employability of workers in today's competitive economic landscape depends on their attitude towards their own further learning and re-training.

However, other well known arguments from social justice have frequently been raised against streaming in particular here and abroad. Streaming practices clearly violate the Maltese National Curriculum's inclusive philosophy and damage the self-esteem of very young children seriously prejudicing their future success at school and in life.

The first draft of the National Curriculum that set in motion the second phase of consultation, in fact, had recommended the dropping of both 11+ exams, the junior lyceum and Common Entrance. Part of the reason was a strong public concern that the 11+ exam has created huge psychological harm to generations of children and their parents who have had to cope with the tensions that build up to it and, frequently, follow from it also as failure causes irremediable damage to self-esteem.

Over the past few years, the response to these and other concerns has taken the shape of periodic modifications to the former examination to enable a higher pass rate than of old, a measure that, in turn, has given rise to a complaint among junior lyceum teachers that they are receiving academically inferior students. It has, however, stopped short of abolishing the examination altogether notwithstanding the obvious failure of the system.

The problem for policy-makers who would contemplate the total removal of the exam in Malta is that it has, from the very start, been popular both with teachers and with parents, or at least with those parents who have most voice and who tend to be the parents of the more successful students. Indeed the cry has even been for stricter selection. The other possibility would be to keep an 11+ examination of a sort but to re-define its purpose so that it becomes a benchmarking tool rather than a tool for selection. This would probably be the most realistic transformation one would envisage for it for the near future.

As can be seen, the issues are as complex as they are multifaceted; this highlights the need for a solid evidence base that informs debate. The Foundation for Educational Services (FES) is contributing to this discussion through the first of a series of publications that it is producing in collaboration with Allied Publishers, and that will have as its title Families and Schools. This first publication is called Transition from Primary and Secondary in Malta: Time to Break the Mould? by Drs Grace Grima and Josette Farrugia, who are both well established in the area of national educational assessment.

This book will be launched with a consultative seminar which is being held at the Robert Samut Hall, Floriana (near the Scouts Headquarters), on Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m. The seminar is open to the public; participants will be able to discuss the junior lyceum entrance and Common Entrance examinations with the members of the 11+ Examination Review Working Group set up recently by Education Minister Louis Galea. The review is taking into account both the junior lyceum and the Common Entrance examination and is due to complete its work by May 2007.

Transition from Primary and Secondary in Malta will undoubtedly create a good basis, a background of information, including well-researched comparative material, for the debate which has already started and which should gather momentum next year.