Claudia Calleja
More inclusive system proposed
Junior Lyceum exam to be replaced by benchmarking tests
The streaming mechanism that pigeonholes schoolchildren according to their overall exam performance will gradually be replaced with a more inclusive system based on each student's level of attainment in individual subjects.
The government's planned reform aims to do away with the distinction between the state's junior lyceums for high achievers and the lower grade area secondary schools. In order to enter the lyceums, pupils need to obtain a pass mark in all five junior lyceum exams: Maltese, English, maths, religion and social studies.
Instead, all students in state schools will move on to mixed-ability secondary schools that form part of the college system after sitting for a new form of final exam at the end of primary school, consisting of Maltese, English and maths.
More emphasis will be put on spoken languages with oral school-based tests at the end of Year 6.
The final exam will serve as a benchmark of the pupils' attainment and the students in secondary school will then be taught in groups, through a "setting" mechanism, depending on their needs in different subjects, rather than streamed into different classes as is the case now.
Unlike the junior lyceum entrance exam that is held in May, the end-of-primary exam will be held in June giving students more time to prepare.
The exam will also be offered to Church and independent schools but, for the time being, not imposed on them.
"Our aim is to move away from the pass or fail mentality and reduce the stress imposed on children through exams... We want to give them back their childhood," said Grace Grima, director general at the Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education, at the launch yesterday of a consultation document on the transition from primary to secondary school.
She stressed that the proposals are built on the positive aspects of the existing education system while doing away with methods that no longer work.
The consultation document is the result of 18 months of meetings with stakeholders - including children, parents, teachers and representatives from state, Church and private schools - and proposes implementing the reform within six years.
Another important aspect of the reform is the removal of streaming in state primary schools. Under the present system, students start being streamed in Year 5 after they undergo five centrally-set written annual exams, again in Maltese, English, maths, religion and social studies, in Year 4.
These exams will be retained under the new system but their purpose will no longer be to stream pupils, who will remain in mixed-competence classes.
The annual assessment in Years 4 and 5 will still consist of the five centrally-set written exams, plus school-based assessment in other curriculum subjects.
If approved, the new system will be phased in over a few years. It will start with students that are in Year 4 this year. Those who are in Years 5 and 6 would keep to the existing system but will be given the opportunity to re-sit one subject.
External monitoring will be introduced in the fourth year of the proposed reform (when the present Year 4 students are in Form 1) to evaluate children's learning in different areas of the curriculum in Years 4, 5 and 6 and Forms 1 and 2.
Education Minister Dolores Cristina insisted that these proposals were part of a larger reform of the education system that includes the revision of the national minimum curriculum by the end of next year.
Another two consultation documents will soon be launched. One deals with the acquisition of core competences in early primary school and the other aims at changing the secondary school-leaving certificate so that more weight is given to non-subject based activities.
The consultation document on the transition from primary to secondary school can be viewed on www.education.gov.mt and feedback can be sent to skola@gov.mt by January 15.
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In Discussion
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Marianna Galea Xuereb
Jan 18th 2011, 19:03
Developing a good memory, discipline, and self control is part and parcel of childhood just as much as playing and socializing is. Indeed, even the healthiest and most intelligent of children will end up severely mentally, socially and emotionally handicapped if they are not nurtured to develop these qualities at the optimum time of their window of opportunity.
Jane Tabone
Nov 19th 2008, 21:09
What about class size? Are years 4,5,6 and forms 1 and 2 still going to be 30 in class? These classes are terribly crowded with little space to move around limiting activities (group work; drama...).
Hope attention is given to 'how well' things are taught and learnt rather than 'how much' is done; at present, sillabii are never ending and seemingly ever increasing (maths) with now additional curricular subjects. I'm afraid it's the basics that are the real problem. Every method in the book, every activity at primary level should utlimately aim at helping students attain literacy up to a basic and simple level. I'd rather have a ten-year-old who can write a short - subject verb object - correct sentence in both Maltese and in English rather than one who writes a complex sentence with adjectives and idioms, that is riddled with mistakes.
Keep life at primary level simple and enjoyable - if this happens then students will be more receptive when the time to widen their knowledge eventually comes.
I hope that we stop trying to fit children into identical compartments and not expect them to perform the same at the same rate. They are not the same!
Marianna Galea Xuereb
Jan 18th 2011, 19:15
It is precisely because children are not the same that mixed ability classes are a totally wrong and perverse concept - even in theory.
Some theoretical concepts may sound perfect in theory but do not work in practice. Mixed ability classes and the associated bla bla about reducing stress, competition etc. are an exception to the rule because even the theory about their "advantages" is totally flawed. The aim of formal, primary and secondary level education is not babysitting but to prepare children for the real world. And the real world and life in general is full of competition (for jobs, mates, land, possessions, status etc.), stress and the need to prove oneself.
Mattias Agius
Nov 19th 2008, 20:20
It seems that streaming is coming to an end. That is good for the student. However, the Minister of Education should indicate how teachers are to be supported and helped out in class in order to cater for all the individual needs of their students. At this stage, human resources and financial commitment are to clearly explained.
Vincent Buttigieg
Nov 19th 2008, 19:03
To Maria Dolores Fenech - I lived the education 'reform' of the seventies as a student and I can assure you that it was a complete mess and a perfect disaster. Now my son (Year 1) is facing the same prospect. I hope for him that those in authority know what they are doing.
If you know of primary school students who finish their homework at 10.00pm then you better report the teacher that he/she starts the training all over again. It is NOT the homework which completes the teaching but the proper lessons at school. For generations children went to school until 4.00pm and they had very little homework; they had time to play, they passed their exams and eventually they generally succeeded in life. And this was done with NO PRIVATE LESSONS after school hours.
I check and know my facts very well and I just wish the best for my son!!!
J. Bonnici
Nov 19th 2008, 18:56
As any classroom educator can confirm, mixed competence classes in primary schools only serve to discriminate against the gifted and the low achievers. If setting is the best system for secondary schools, why shouldn't it also be implemented in the larger primary schools?
No changes to the system should be implemented before serious pilot studies are conducted. We could end up in a worse position than we are now.
albert leone ganado
Nov 19th 2008, 16:17
When in 1981 the junior lyceum was created to remedy the education disaster which had been created in the early seventies the intention was that it would cater for the most gifted students i.e. those which fell in the category of being more than one standard deviation above average.
We then messed up the system by regularly increasing the number of 11+ exam passes to pander to demands of parents to see their children in the junior lyceum even if they were not particularly gifted.
This original number of about 1/6th of the school population kept increasing so that now it hovers round 60% of those sitting for the junior lyceum.
It is this fact that is patently unfair as it condemns 40% to the waste bin.
We should have three different kinds of ability school for the bottom 1/6th the middle 2/3 and the top 1/6.
Radically different teaching methods are required for these group of students. Our teacher training prepares mainly a general teaching practitioner from the ability point of view.
What should be the first step is for teachers to be speciality trained for these different kinds of service.
Marianna Galea Xuereb
Jan 18th 2011, 19:23
That is exactly the way it should be Dr. Leone Ganado but unfortunately such perfect reasoning as your post has practically become a modern taboo nowadays.
Maria Dolores Fenech
Nov 19th 2008, 15:49
@Vincent Buttigieg
Quote:If necessary the hours of attendance should be increased to allow for this to take place.
Most primary school children finish their homework at about 10pm. They have no time to play let alone watch TV. What happens if they finish school at say 4pm, will they have to stay up until 11.30pm to finish their work?
Quote:Does removal of examinations mean that the teachers will now have less incentive to push through what little syllabus is left for the children to learn?
Examinations will remain. And what do you mean ....what little syllabus is left....... little syllabus my foot! Do you have any idea how vast the Social studies syllabus is, the mathematics syllabus (my daughter has maths HW EVERY day), etc?
Check out your facts before you write about our children's education.
Reading out the plan I noticed that Year 4 students are going to be assessed on Science plus the usual 5 subject exams at June next year. Does this mean that another subject is going to be introduced for them to study? Don't they have more than enough?
Vincent Buttigieg
Nov 19th 2008, 15:13
If the reform is intended to make school enjoyable for children then why not think about re-introducing music, art, sports and other leisure subjects into the curriculum. If necessary the hours of attendance should be increased to allow for this to take place. Does removal of examinations mean that the teachers will now have less incentive to push through what little syllabus is left for the children to learn? This goes completely against the principle of trying "to make the mules live up to the speed of the horses and not reining in the horses to the speed of the mules".
Wilfred L Camilleri
Nov 19th 2008, 14:20
Learning by heart is not the best method of learning a subject. It is far better if students learned through instruction combined with individual or group research and then submission of a paper on completion of a project. Learning through research is more productive, builds a life-long learning experience, and leads to the students gaining valuable expertise to prepare them for their eventual entry into the workforce.
Paul Cassar
Nov 19th 2008, 13:26
These reforms contain many positives aspects but if they are intended for state schools only their effect would be counter-productive. The comment ' for the time being' does not mean much or rather it means a lot. It would be interesting to hear the non-state schools' comments on these proposals.
mario mifsud
Nov 19th 2008, 12:05
This is reform is in the right direction but it cannot stop there. There must be streaming when it comes to misbehaviour. At present this problem is present only in some Sec schools, with this reform it will be scatterd in all the schools. Misbihaviour hinders other pupils from learning and hinders the work of teachers. At present there is no effevtive will or legislature to tackle pupils who misbehave repeatedly. They are left in their classes for the detriment of fellow classmates till their sixteenth birthday.
V Farrugia
Nov 19th 2008, 11:55
All 'by heart' learning should be scrapped, this means unfortunately most of the syllabus for both Social Studies and Religion. Children are not gaining much from these two subjects which they study ferociously the week before the exam, and promptly forgetting everything the moment they get out of the examination hall.
More emphasis should be placed in the fluency in literacy and numeracy.
Marianna Galea Xuereb
Jan 18th 2011, 18:57
Hold your horses!
Some so-called "by heart" learning and studying has its merits - even if just to help children develop a good, functional memory. Moreover, not all concepts and learning can be merely reasoned out. Can you imagine learning a foreign language without learning grammar rules and verb conjugation by heart, for example? Or studying Anatomy without memorizing the names and location of muscles, bones etc by heart? Or studying Chemistry without memorizing the periodic table, valency of chemicals etc by heart?
A major aim of Primary education is to prepare children for the teenage and adult years. Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Scientists, Teachers, Pharmacists, Technicians etc. cannot become truly qualified and professional unless they learn certain things "by heart" - even if they have to combine this with rational and creative reasoning all the time. Personal experince and observation have made me realise that children who do not get used to the idea that they have to learn a few things by heart on cue everyday by the age of around 5-6 years of age will find it practically impossible to acquire the discipline and mind frame necessary to learn to study as teenagers and adults.
Mark Azzopardi
Nov 19th 2008, 10:41
Well done to Minister Cristina, Dr Grace Grima and the rest of those involved for this much awaited reform. Children will now be given their childhood back and will not anymore be treated like robots who have to learn things by heart, suffer stress and pass their childhood studying all the time to pass exams.....Also the children who presently find themselves in lower classes won't anymore have the problem of being labelled and called 'ignorants' or 'cabbages' because they did not manage to pass their exams...This reform gives dignity to our students....Let us hope that during the consultation period there won't be strong oppostion by those few who are comfortable with the present system...
Marianna Galea Xuereb
Jan 18th 2011, 18:33
On the contrary, let us hope and PRAY that parents and guardians will finally come to their senses and insist on doing away with mixed ability classes as well as in being misinformed and taken for a ride.
Kindly note that “Under the present system, students start being streamed in Year 5 after they undergo five centrally-set written annual exams, again in Maltese, English, maths, religion and social studies, in Year 4.” is totally untrue because this sensible system was done away with over a year ago in state Primary schools and the devastating effects of the perverse mixed ability classes are already clearly apparent - even if the authorities are trying their best to hide them and practically gag conscientious teachers into submission and silence.
Maria Dolores Fenech
Nov 19th 2008, 09:46
What about the load of work and material young children have to study (by heart)?