The proposed reform in education for the transition of children from primary to secondary school has been welcomed enthusiastically by educationalists and the top people in the education directorates are busy explaining this proposed reform to parents and other stakeholders. There also seems to be the political will to abolish the Junior Lyceum examination, seeing that it is now generally admitted that selection at 11+ is putting enormous stress on children and their parents and having detrimental effects on at least half our children.

The Junior Lyceum examination has now been with us for 27 years and has, unfortunately, become the raison d'être of primary schooling. All teaching in the upper years is towards this end. The success or failure of primary schools has come to be measured by how many children they succeed in getting into Junior Lyceum.

Introduced in 1981 by Minister Philip Muscat to mitigate some of the unpleasant effects of a bungled attempt to introduce comprehensive secondary education, the stated aim of the examination was to cream off the topmost layer of primary schoolchildren and place them in schools of excellence that would be the envy of everyone. Within a few years, it was creaming off a much thicker layer than that intended and the selective examination was already becoming a source of anxiety among parents.

I have the feeling that subsequent ministers felt uneasy about it and some of them tried to introduce changes meant to make it less painful, though no one was prepared to go the whole hog and abolish it. President Emeritus Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, as Education Minister, redefined it as a qualifying rather than a selective examination and widened the examinable areas to five by adding religion and social studies to the original Maltese, English and mathematics. Evarist Bartolo, unhappy with the curriculum he inherited, set up a committee of educationalists to draft a new curriculum for discussion but when they proposed the abolition of the 11+ examination and the organisation of the secondary sector into a comprehensive system, he felt that such a radical change needed more time.

As we know, he was not granted that time. Louis Galea tried to circumvent the problem by networking schools into colleges so that, while the 11+ examination was retained, all primary children would proceed to the same secondary school within the college and follow different courses there.

Now that there is the political will to initiate the process of reform, Minister Dolores Cristina needs to pick her way carefully through the welter of emotion and controversy surrounding this subject. It is hoped that the extensive process of consultation will lead to the identification of the best way forward.

Basically, this reform, which will take six years to achieve completely, consists of two major changes. The first is the phasing off of the Junior Lyceum examination and the second is the discontinuation of the practice of streaming children in the last two years of primary school. Both will take two years to complete.

There are 22 recommendations in the report, the first of which is that "streaming and selection in the primary and lower secondary is to be abolished". The others fall clearly into four groups.

The first group (2-8) has to do with examinations in the primary school. These will now serve to show achievement but not to select; they will be moderated for fairness; assessments will be expressed as levels of achievement. The Year 6 final examination will be offered to Church and independent schools as well.

The second group (9-15) has to do with teaching. For the holistic development of children, teaching would put more emphasis on subjects and skills which are not assessed by exams and, where justified, there could be adjustment of the syllabus. Teachers would be given professional training to deal with mixed-ability classes and other stakeholders will be prepared for these changes. A support system in the form of full-time professional care workers and learning support personnel will be introduced.

The third group (16-19) deals with non-state schools. The selective common entrance examination will be discontinued and schools will be offered the possibility of participating in those measures taken in state schools, including teacher training and support. Collegiality among these schools is encouraged.

The final group (20-22) provides for national monitoring of educational outcomes, a national assessment unit and participation in international testing programmes.

It seems to me that many of these recommendations are not difficult to achieve. However, there are three areas where difficulties are likely to be encountered and these require careful consideration.

The first is financial. Some excellent initiatives in education have failed because of lack of funds. Besides the added expense of more resources, of employing more full-time support staff and of investing in buildings to make the new colleges physically real as most of them have no central secondary school to take in their primary pupils, the MUT has already hinted that smaller classes are required to make the reform work and this means the employment of more teachers. As Carmel Borg, a former dean of the Education Faculty, has already pointed out, one hopes that the minister has the Cabinet's backing to go ahead.

The second concerns teachers. They are to be given professional training to deal with mixed-ability classes but it must be remembered that the bulk of our teachers already teach mixed-ability classes (Years 1 to 4 of primary and most of secondary classes). What is needed is a commitment to cater for the different levels in the same class by means of what is now being called differentiated teaching. In most classes this is not being done and it is not going to be easy to get teachers to change their ways unless the whole ambience in which they work is changed.

Thirdly, there is the question of Church and independent schools. The report tries to include them in the proposed recommendations for reform but it is clear that here the writers of the report are on less steady ground.

Moreover, it seemed to me that in giving his reactions to the report, Fr Dominic Scerri, the Bishop's delegate for education, was treading on very thin ice and avoided giving any clear answers.

Unless these schools can be convinced to be involved in the planned reform, they will still be perceived by parents as different options and we would not have eliminated selection, neither at 11+ nor much earlier.

Mr Muscat is a former headmaster and lectures in school administration.

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