Recently, the local media published articles on the Junior Lyceum entrance examination results together with statements made by various politicians, including Education Minister Dolores Cristina and Labour Party Education spokesman Evarist Bartolo. Unfortunately, the prevalent discourse on the students' academic achievement was detached from a holistic understanding of the true problems surrounding the issue.
When the Junior Lyceum entry exam is used as a measure of students' success rate, one is using a paradigm which supports, encourages and facilitates students' ability to obtain good grades in high-stake exams. The emphasis is on measuring achievement through grades and standardised testing with the consequence that areas of learning which fall outside the statistics, such as music, drama, art, physical education, creative thinking and other soft skills are never taken seriously. Such a paradigm emphasises uniformity and takes place in a top-down environment in which policy-makers impose programmes, procedures and policies on students who have less power over and control of their learning.
When too much attention drifts onto these statistics - to the detriment of other current educational realities - one fails to take into account differences in students' cultural backgrounds, the speed and ways in which they learn, and other crucial factors that influence students' exam performance. Ignoring these differences is one of the reasons why particular students continue to fail exams, drop out of school at an early age, and feel that education has failed them. This should be of concern to all those interested in the genuine well-being of the students involved.
The Junior Lyceum exam, and statistics related to it, tends to neglect areas of the curriculum that ensure a well-rounded education. By a well-rounded education we understand an educational experience which seeks to nurture abilities which cannot be quantified, such as building successful relationships with others, giving meaningful service to the community, developing emotional maturity, ethical behaviour, and a passion for learning. Important information which the teacher might have picked up and reported in an anecdotal manner is often not valued, and deemed as unimportant.
Moreover, as has already been repeated a number of times, such discourse encourages the practice of teaching to the test. In this way, the control that educators are supposed to enjoy over the curriculum is transferred towards that institution which sets the standards and exams. This results in a high level of stress on both teachers and students. One should also consider that such discourse undermines the intrinsic value of learning for its own sake and instead shifts the impetus on learning to gain extrinsic and immediate rewards.
Such discourse often results in schools adopting practices inappropriate for students' development. One often witnesses a focus on a tougher curriculum to prepare students for the exams, leading educators to start from very early on to prepare pupils for the rigours of academia. Practices previously considered developmentally appropriate for the first years of primary schooling have now been pushed back to kindergarten. Increasingly, early childhood education is being invaded by homework, seat work, worksheets, less time for school breaks, and other developmentally inappropriate practices.
In our opinion, the discourse needs to be shifted to one which promotes a more holistic educational development. Learning signifies much more than making it through to the Junior Lyceum classes. One, therefore, needs to emphasise flexibility to allow teachers to use their professional expertise to personalise instruction and to give students meaningful choices.
As regards assessment, one needs to promote a mode of assessment which, rather than comparing students against each other, compares a student's present performance to the same student's prior performance.
So rather than using precious newspaper space to continue perpetuating the stigma that certain areas of Malta carry, one needs to write more about, and celebrate students' development and success.
It is only through positive thinking and the feeling of success that one can alleviate the burden of failure that children from deprived areas very often carry with them throughout their scholastic years.
Having a vision for the future which merely comprises action plans that measure up to the needs for employment will not deliver better results. Success is achieved when it is ensured that every child is on the path of success, that is every child is progressing when compared to their previous performance.
This type of discourse facilitates the engagement of students in learning activities and coursework that help them function in the real world. It allows them to shine in their areas of strength and lessens the need to classify students with disability labels. It enables students to develop competencies at their own pace and helps educators and students to have more control over their learning environments.
This type of education encourages schools and colleges to develop innovative diversity learning programmes which respond to the local and personal needs of their students. Success can only be achieved if schools are allowed to take initiatives and are supported with resources to respond to the diverse social and cultural realities of different localities.
The authors form part of the Let Me Learn Centre - Malta, a joint initiative between the University of Malta and the Education Division. The centre trains and mentors educators in differentiated instruction, carries out research among teachers and students engaged in various learning settings, and promotes individualised learning that addresses students' specific needs. For more information, access the website www.letmelearnmalta.org or e-mail info@letmelearnmalta.com.