Easing the transition

Salvina Muscat, Cottonera College coordinator, shares her thoughts with Stephanie Psaila on the pupils' transition from kindergarten to primary school.

"At the age of five, a child goes through an important transition: the informal environment of kindergarten, during which the child spends months playing with other children on colourful mats, becomes a formal class with aligned desks and chairs, during which a child is required to wear a uniform and stay as quiet and attentive as possible for the duration of the lessons.

"For many children, this transition is difficult, and comes at too early an age," Cottonera college coordinator Salvina Muscat believes.

Ms Muscat carries a heavy baggage of experience teaching primary and secondary students and as head of school in various areas, as assistant director and as coordinator of the Cottonera College. She spent her 35-year teaching career educating children, studying their development and updating her teaching methods with the times.

She strongly believes that children need a transition phase to ease their path into primary school. However, the phase may not necessarily be one-year long: it could even mean a term, such as the first three months of Year 1, during which the teacher can introduce basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills in an informal setting, to allow the child to develop his/her own social skills, which are equally important.

Many reasons back her belief: the modern-day family, the technological revolution which in some ways has taken over social interaction, the delicate age in which children begin formal education, and the importance of learning certain skills at a very early stage in life. Ms Muscat has witnessed first-hand the difficulties experienced by young children and their teachers. She recalled the time when she was head of school at St Paul's Bay: with over 14 kindergarten classes and a over a hundred Year 1 pupils, she would spend the first term supporting concerned Year 1 teachers whose pupils would have been finding it difficult to cope with discipline and learning the syllabus.

"All they would want to do was play and interact, just like they would do in kindergarten," she said.

For many couples, today's lifestyle means having only one child. With no siblings to interact with, the only child is required to seek other children's company from different places, for example school.

Yet, once the child starts primary school, unless teachers allow their pupils to play and talk during a lesson, social interaction is limited to break-time or to the few activities during lessons.

The technological revolution, despite its tremendous and undisputable benefits, has taken over face-to-face social interaction, which can never be fully replaced by electronic communication. Many of today's young children spend hours on the computers, either playing games, or watching video clips or communicating with e-friends. However, technology cannot replace face-to-face social interaction, communication and play, which is so important to the development of a young child.

Ms Muscat also believes that some children go through a trauma when they first start primary school, because at such a tender age, they would find primary school too distinct a reality from kindergarten. Since not all children reach the same developmental stage by the time they are five years old, some are still unable to conceive Year 1 as an important educational step. Some are simply not ready for formal education, and need to stay in a relaxed environment for some more time. They need to feel safe sitting on a carpet, around the teacher while she relates stories. Their questions and imagination skills "need to be stretched" so that they acquire more interest in learning.

She believes that requiring all five-year-olds to start formal education means that some unavoidably fail to pick up the first building blocks. Some children never catch up with their peers, and end up feeling frustrated at their inability, eventually leaving school early.

During her tenure as head of school at St Paul's Bay, the concern faced by Year 1 teachers led Ms Muscat to group kindergarten pupils with Year 1 pupils for the last term of the scholastic year.

"I had grouped kindergarten classes and Year 1 pupils for one term to initiate the smooth transition phase in an informal way. At the same time there will be the introduction of formal teaching to younger children in an informal environment. The result was very encouraging, as all children were getting acquainted with the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic in a relaxed environment."

Ms Muscat has also seen similar settings in kindergartens across Europe. On one particular visit to a kindergarten school in Norway, she could see how the teachers' thematic approach taught children some important basic skills in a fun, informal way.

"The teachers had devised a simple teaching plan which required children to prepare a fruit salad for the class. Half the class accompanied one teacher to buy the fruit, which enabled the teacher to impart mathematics basics, such as how many apples were needed so that every child could have half an apple. The other half of the class took care of the set-up of chairs and tables, and also worked sums to decide, for example, how many chairs were required if three tables were to be used."

Ms Muscat is concerned that the 96-98 per cent attendance rate of Maltese kindergartens does not show how many children actually attend class on a regular basis.

Since kindergarten attendance is not compulsory, the statistics would fail to register situations where a child is absent for weeks or months.

This means that students start attending formal education without the related learning experience provided by the kindergarten setting. One needs to say that to date there is no official curriculum for these pupils as the National Curriculum covers the ages five to 16.

Yet, despite the number of children which found the transition difficult, which could be relatively small, she said no one should be left on the sidewalk.