PM acknowledges need for in-depth look at streaming

The streaming of schoolchildren and the rat race to the Junior Lyceum examinations were high on the agenda yesterday, spearheaded by professor Kenneth Wain who called for an immediate stop to the submitting of young students to a selection process, based on their abilities.

Prof. Wain, a former dean of the Faculty of Education and one of the main architects of the national minimum curriculum, also underscored the need for a national strategic plan for lifelong learning.

Malta, he said, has not yet completely understood the concept of lifelong learning, or taken it seriously, while it appeared in every EU policy paper.

Junior Lyceum and common entrance examinations should be "abandoned" because they are doing no good to the country's educational system, Prof. Wain insisted. The system, he said, is introducing a culture of failure among eight-year-old schoolchildren and their selection has to be delayed as much as possible.

Prof. Wain was speaking from the floor at a business breakfast at the Grand Hotel Excelsior in Floriana, the first in a series organised by the Nationalist Party in the run-up to the Independence Day celebrations.

The subject was also broached by Paul Attard, president of the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology's board of directors, in his opening presentation.

Over the decades, too much importance has been given to exams lasting a couple of hours and whose results have often dictated a child's future.

He appealed for continuous assessment to be extended into secondary schools and for the Junior Lyceum exam to develop into a formal test that indicates the level students have reached, according to national benchmarks, but does not condemn their future.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, who closed the discussion, acknowledged that the streaming of schoolchildren is a passionate, ongoing and controversial debate. A culture change is required not only by policy makers but also by parents, he said, pointing a finger at himself, who had urged his children to study when push came to shove and they had to sit for that "exam of two hours that decides the entire life of a person".

Dr Gonzi acknowledged that, like adults, children too need "job satisfaction" in class - and that also depends on the teachers.

He described the issue as a dilemma that has no easy solution and which has to be examined in depth.

Dr Gonzi had no doubt that, when it came to deciding where to invest the country's financial resources, the priority was definitely education. "Let us put our money where our mouth is," he said.

This was underlined further by the fact that a potential, major foreign investor from the financial services sector, which would generate lots of employment and government revenue, was basing its choice of Malta primarily on whether the country could provide the necessary human resources.

The answer lay in education decisions taken decades ago, Dr Gonzi said. They had a bearing on investment opportunities today.

He described the current scenario as "an amazing window of opportunity" thanks to technology that had broken barriers, saying it would be a shame if the country did not exploit it.

In his intervention, the president of the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT), John Bencini warned that the St Benedict College pilot project, which brought together students of varying levels under one roof, is destined to fail without strong structures and support for the teachers.

Mr Bencini said the union has learnt from first-hand accounts that the teachers are under pressure and that problems would arise because of this.

Unacceptable student behaviour was another educational issue and teachers were wasting most of their time controlling their class.

The MUT also needed to enter discussions with the government and the University on the lack of teachers, particularly at primary school level.

While listing Malta's accomplishments in education, Mr Attard said it still has to achieve the high levels of other developed European countries. Quoting a 2008 EU report on education and training, he said that, although still below the EU-15 average, Malta registered notable improvement in terms of education and lifelong learning indicators.