Last Tuesday, the Education Ministry published a report proposing reform in the education system affecting the way children move from primary to secondary schools in Malta. Joseph Grech seeks some initial reactions.

Valerie Sollars

Dr Sollars is dean, Faculty of Education, University of Malta.
The phasing out of the Junior Lyceum examinations should undoubtedly be a huge relief to many of the major stakeholders. Children should not be engaged in activities which promote cramming information, learning things by heart or subjected to feelings of inadequacy when disappointing exam results are published.

There should also be less pressure on teachers who are sometimes assessed on their skills depending on how well children perform in exams. Hopefully, such measures will allow children much-needed time to participate in enjoyable, healthy activities within the school day as well as after school hours.

Local research has indicated that many children give up extra-curricular activities to concentrate on studying for exams, whereas within school timetables, other equally valid curricular areas such as art, music, drama, ICT and physical education are being sacrificed to concentrate almost exclusively on what is perceived to be more important by virtue of being examinable.

The removal of these exams should also be an opportunity for the teaching community, practitioners, policy makers and educators to revisit curricular issues and concerns.

To a great extent, the curriculum and syllabus content of the five examinable subjects dictated what is taught.

Now is the time to engage in collaborative discussions which lead to curricula and syllabi which offer relevant and meaningful learning experiences. Ironically, learning by rote offers minimal learning. Real learning occurs when opportunities are available to engage with a subject, theme or material in such depth as to allow for a true understanding of concepts and principles.

(These are Dr Sollars' personal views as the report has still to be discussed by the Faculty.)

John Bencini

Mr Bencini is president, Malta Union of Teachers (MUT).
The MUT notes that the Education Ministry's Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education (DQSE) has seriously planned and paved the way for a consultation process that will hopefully lead to a massive overhaul of our archaic education system, the type of which has lost favour in every other part of the world.

The MUT has often made its views public on such issues. Thus, since the present circumstances require serious reflection by the nation that will definitely challenge obsolete mentalities and systems, the MUT will at present keep a low profile so as not to influence the consultation process, which is currently open to the opinions of educators, parents and students alike.

The MUT notes, however, that such changes as proposed by the DQSE require a serious amount of investment in human resources and infrastructure. Such changes can never be implemented effectively without a major overhaul of the traditional classroom set-up, population ratios and support services.

Carmel Borg

Prof. Borg is former dean, Faculty of Education.
As an advocate of authentic inclusion, and as a researcher in the field of education and social justice, I have always stressed that early tracking of pupils is immoral, unethical and educationally unsustainable.

As a result, I was overjoyed by the recommendations of the report commissioned by the Ministry of Education, aimed at dismantling a highly bureaucratic system of academic selection that fails to deliver the benefits of educational excellence to all students.

It also seems that the Catholic Church has come to terms with the fact that selection and social justice are antithetical to each other. Ten years ago, as Peter Mayo and I indicated in our book Learning and Social Difference (Paradigm, 2006), the Maltese Episcopal Conference, through its Secretariat for Catholic Education and Culture, was still arguing that "we just cannot cater for all in one system of education". It remains to be seen how the independent sector will be integrated, now that the appetite for social inclusion seems to have been reclaimed. Streaming and the 11+ exam are not the only barriers to genuine inclusion. The Minister's speech indicates that she is well aware that the list of reforms that need to be introduced at all levels of the system is lengthy and financially challenging.

Equity is currently undermined by: (a) a weak early-childhood sector; (b) a curriculum process that fails to energise and stimulate; (c) an assessment regime that is strong in labelling and weak in forming and informing; (d) weak links between most schools and most homes, coupled with inadequate provisions for disadvantaged parents; (e) a fragile support system for both students and teachers; (f) a limited understanding of what constitutes differentiated teaching and learning; (g) a situation where time-on task within classrooms is shrinking in an alarming manner; and (h) a high teacher-pupil ratio in some classes.

Powerful interest groups within the education system may lobby for important compromises to be made. I hope that the Minister and other stakeholders will stand firm in pursuing this goal.

I also hope that the promoters of the document are prepared to not only engage in real and genuine dialogue with teachers and parents, but also to invest in the infrastructure of the schools and in the preparation of teachers and other stakeholders for this major development in our education system.

I am assuming that the Minister printed the document on the proviso that Cabinet will support her not only morally but also financially. I am sure that ministers and parliamentary secretaries are aware that this reform does not come cheap.

Sandro Spiteri

Mr Spiteri is principal, St Margaret's College, Cottonera.
The 11+ reform proposal that has been launched this week is the most important change directly affecting teaching and learning for 35 years. Above all, it is a social justice measure, acknowledged as such even by the Catholic Church in Malta. This is because this proposal makes it possible for all children to fulfil their entitlement for a holistic education that prepares them effectively for lifelong learning.

Perhaps one of the most striking features is that it is the first nuts-and-bolts proposal after the universally-acclaimed National Minimum Curriculum to include the possible participation of both Church schools and those in the independent sector. The participation of all three educational sectors is crucial to ensure that all schools and colleges have a level playing field in addressing the diverse needs of students, and in erasing the perception that state schools are second-category schools.

The proposal is that non-state schools employ non-selective ways of how to take in their students. This effectively sounds the death knell for the Common Entrance Exams.

Also, an analysis of the proposal shows that the lessons gained from the disastrous introduction of comprehensivisation in the 1970s have been well and truly learnt. In 1972, the change from exam-based educational provision to a mixed-ability comprehensive system was well grounded theoretically, but the pedagogical and organisational implications were not thought through sufficiently.

The result was the mass transfer to non-state schools, as parents voted with their feet. The proportion of students in non-state education rose from one fifth then to more than one third today. From the metaphorical rubble arose the 'Chaos Myth', the great fear of parents and teachers of educational change. It still hovers today as a cloud of apprehensive doubt on the present 11+ proposal.

However, the 11+ proposal has avoided all these pitfalls. It is grounded not only in 25 years of research, but in an extensive national consultation process that preceded the formal launch of the proposal and will continue through a number of meetings and other public input until January 2008.

The proposal has a gradual six-year implementation time-line that respects the reality and autonomy of different schools and is coupled with staff training and resource development.

Crucially, exams at the end of primary will be retained, but completely transformed. Exams will only be held for Maltese, English and Maths, and they will have only a diagnostic, not a selection function.

This means that these exams will not be used to label about 50 per cent of state school students as 'failures' because they did not pass the exams. And non-state schools are being invited to take up these exams themselves so that this becomes a national benchmark of ability in the core competences at this transfer point from primary to secondary.

There are many other suggested changes in the proposals - it is well worth going through them. This is the best change we have ever had to really leave the present failing education-by-selection behind us, and to give all children the chance to succeed.

Dominic Scerri

Fr Scerri is Bishops' delegate for Education.
The system, together with the criteria, for entry into Church schools is a matter that has been studied by the Private Schools Association (PSA) in conjunction with the Secretariat for Catholic Education.

Meetings were held during November and December 2006 with the ministerial commission set up with the aim of reporting on the transition from primary to secondary, and it was made clear that the present system of entry at secondary level by means of a competitive and selective examination had to be changed.

Besides creating hardships and causing a separation in educational sectors in a marked way, and placing at a disadvantage those who needed help most, it was also leading to a wastage of human resources.

At a meeting of the PSA chair and secretary with the bishops and the Archbishop's Delegate for Education on May 8, 2007, it was established that the removal of the competitive and selective examination was an integral and essential part of the mission of the Church which aimed at supporting, in the best possible way, those who mostly needed help.

Now we have an official report indicating and proposing changes for the improvement of the educational system for our children. The report contemplates a transition from primary to secondary, and invites comments from all stakeholders and those interested in the subject.

On the part of Church schools, it was pointed out that for a school to have a share in the change from high ability grouping to mixed ability teaching, the passage would result in a substantial and qualitative leap.

Mixed ability teaching demands a different pedagogical strategy: differentiated teaching; setting or banding, especially in core subjects; strengthening of learning support; support of professionals such as educational psychologists, occupational therapists, etc.; different curricula for students of different inclinations and aptitudes; different assessments.

For Church schools to ease the step from primary to secondary level, some type of rank order is essential for parents to choose the school they prefer. A competitive examination creates a rank order according to marks or grades obtained. In the absence of the measure provided by examinations, the setting up of an order is a must.

The possibility of setting up new primaries in schools that currently cater only for secondary education is being scrutinised.

Along with other needs and requirements, the matter depends on space and funds. The system of the filling of vacancies at secondary level, when the number of students at Year six of primary school is less than the places at first year secondary, is also being studied.

Over and above all considerations, although Church schools are going out of their way to ease and support the entrance of children at secondary level without the problem and stress of a competitive and selective examination, there is still the need for deep studies and solutions enabling a workable system for the benefit and welfare of tomorrow's citizens.

Carmen Zammit

Ms Zammit is Commissioner for Children.
This is a positive reform. My Office receives many complaints regarding the stress that children suffer, which is in part due to the pressure that parents put on them to sit for the Junior Lyceum exam to keep up with other children in their class.

Parents push their children and often expect them to achieve more than they are capable of. We need to reduce this stress.

In line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the education system should help every child to develop their capabilities to their maximum, whether these are academic abilities or non-academic talents.

To this end, classes should ideally be composed of students of mixed ability, and teachers should be trained and have the time to give personalised attention to their students.

It is also important to create an inclusive environment in schools so that no students feel inferior to others, so it is very positive that the Education Ministry is proposing to eliminate streaming because this is a factor causing unnecessary stress.

The education syllabus needs to aim to develop the child's personality as a whole. At present, children are often memorising subjects by heart, but when you ask them a question they just look at you. We need to focus more on developing their thinking ability and teach them how to reason things out.

The EU network for Ombudsmen for Children is strongly em-phasising the importance that children are informed and given the opportunity to voice their views and suggestions on matters that affect them.

In this regard, it was a very positive step for the Education Ministry to create a child-friendly leaflet on the proposed reform.

I urge parents to download this leaflet for their children and I encourage them to attend the consultation meetings due to be held during the forthcoming weeks, and to take their children with them.

Public consultation

Consultation meetings on the proposed changes are being held:

Tomorrow - Sandhurst Secondary School, St Andrew's

Wednesday - Lily of the Valley Secondary School, Mosta

Friday - Tal-Handaq Secondary School, Qormi

Dec. 1 - Boys' Junior Lyceum, Hamrun

Dec. 3 - Mqabba Primary School

Dec. 5 - Verdala Secondary School, Cospicua

Dec. 9 - Girls' Junior Lyceum, Mriehel

Dec. 10 - Primary School, Attard

Dec. 11 - Carlo Diacono Junior Lyceum, Zejtun

Dec. 12 - Ninu Cremona Secondary School, Victoria, Gozo

Jan. 10 - Robert Sammut Hall, Floriana

All meetings are from 6.30 to 8 p.m. except for the Jan. 10 meeting which will be held from 9.30 to 11 a.m.

The report 'Transition from primary to secondary schools in Malta' and other related documents are available on the website www.education.gov.mt/ mixja.html.

Comments and suggestions may be sent by e-mail to the Ministry of Education at: skola@gov.mt.

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