ICT lecturer being investigated by disciplinary board

Robert Sultana (CIO, University Of Malta)

Jun 5th 2009, 20:39

I would like to clarify that I am not the 'Robert Sultana' that has previously posted comments about this article.

Daryl Cumbo

Jun 4th 2009, 07:35

@Daniela Cefai

You should consider investing into training for your employees rather than coming here saying they're not capable of. You can't expect us to keep up with all of the latest technology, and if you do, that means you're not really up-to-date either.

my 2c

Daryl Cumbo

Jun 4th 2009, 07:27

@Robert Sultana

Don't they teach you about generalization at UOM? Having a corrupt lecturer doesn't mean all of them are.

I am a former MCAST ICT student who works with one of the leading software companies in Malta. I have seen all kinds of people coming out both from ICT and UOL, some are good, some are just not. Comparing the courses is just plain dumb as one is vocational and the other is not, you can't ever say that your BSC IT is better.

Congratulations all the people that competed in imagine cup, when I was considering it I didn't find the time, and that is why I appreciate the fact that even though you had all that work load, you dedicated time on the imagine cup.

Claudio Carta

Jun 3rd 2009, 16:02

@Robert Sultana

I am deeply offended by your words. I am an MCAST ICT student who tried the Imagine Cup by myself and not as a team. I have done and given my best to produce the best system I could have done and all the work done was performed by me. I have not started in October as you had accused but in February which is 3months before the deadline.

After spending 3months of hard work and being extremely satisfied with my product, I found your comment. I cannot say anything except that this is a desperate plea from you to make MCAST level sink as you feel threatened that we have reached and in other ways exceeded the standard you provide even though we did not win the Imagine Cup Qualification round.

Christian Azzopardi

Jun 3rd 2009, 15:03

First of all i would like to congratulate to both university and MCAST students who participated in the Image Cup competition.
Besides, it is useless trying to compare university students with MCAST students as you will get no where. It varies from a student to another and doesn't matter what institute the student belongs to. I know a lot of student from MCAST who are working with Malta's top website development companies, computer shops, and so on and some of the are even working abroad for the same company. I have also met University students that do not know that a PC monitor can power itself from the PC's power supply. And this happened vice versa. I think that that's why they invented job interviews. To identify the best from the best.

Mark Philip Camilleri

Jun 3rd 2009, 10:42

@Robert Sultana Continued

I can give you ample proof of my team's prowess but I do not believe this is the right place to do so. Also note that the names of our team were never mentioned in any publication. The article about the Imagine Cup in the times mentioned the names of our lecturers but not our names. So I take this opportunity to congratulate my two team mates with whom i have found great team work, determination and most of all SKILL. Thankyou Gabriel Spiteri and Josef George Orland.

Regards,
Mark Philip Camilleri

Mark Philip Camilleri

Jun 3rd 2009, 10:41

@Robert Sultana

I happen to have formed part of the 3-student team which was chosen from MCAST to compete in the imagine cup local finals. I assure you that lecturers had no part in the coding, idea and designing of the system. They were VERY helpful to give us the motivation and support when it comes to taking part in such a competition but to claim that they have given us unfair help is not true. There are no words to describe my frustration after seeing your claim and I could only utter the following words: "MISSEK TISTHI!".

I have great appreciation and respect towards my lecturers and the whole MCAST institution. They have given us dozens of opportunities to prove ourselves as dedicated and determined students. I have in NO WAY attempted to discredit the work of the University team but your attempt to discredit OUR work is outrageous.

Carmel Pule'

Jun 1st 2009, 00:14

Mr Franco please note,
My comment had nothing to do with nostaligia, you just cannot ever question Quality Standards.

In the production of industrial replacable spare parts, if the Director of any Company ever questions the accuracy of the standard measuring instruments as a micrometer or a verneer, his products, be they original or imitation, would definetely finish on the reject heap or if used, would bring any machine to a grinding halt ,sometimes even causing fatal incidents where deaths do occur, and people like me are asked by the courts to investigaste the incidents. In the last 40 years most fatal industrial incidents (circa 300) that I investigated were due to unqualified personnel occupying posts and employed without knowing the depth of what they were handling.
So my advice is not to mess with Quality Standards when accrediting students, someone, something, always get hurt eventually.

Carmen Formosa

May 31st 2009, 19:03

@ Franco Farrugia

Yes, MCAST examinations are sent to London for external verification ... and it's quite a common practice.

As regards to foreigners ... I must take your comment with a pinch of sarcasm considering who the ICT lecturer being investigated is!

Franco Farrugia

May 31st 2009, 18:39

@ Carmel Pule - With all due respect, the time for 'unquestioning' is over, sir. We either continue living in the land of nostalgia or we start facing reality. To look back and fervently wish to turn the clock back is counter-productive.

In my opinion, the way forward for MCAST is to get foreign examiners for every course examination carried out at this institution. The same usually applies at the University, and this is done in order to ensure that the diplomas/certificates/degrees conferred are of the same level as those abroad, and so as to ensure that these are universally recognised. ARE FOREIGN EXAMINERS PART OF THE EXAMINATIONS PROCEDURES AT MCAST? IF NOT, THAT IS A SERIOUS ERROR AND SHOULD BE RECTIFIED.

K. Vella

May 31st 2009, 00:58

[3/3]

It is the graduates' duty to analytically study and then apply the most suitable theoretical model to a business problem, true. But most code monkeys, err students, are only taught to solve problems scientifically (or by referring to MSDN, if you want to be mean); seldom strategically!

It's about time students are encouraged to learn how to focus on solving existing and future problems by using technology only as a means to an end. Not the other way round! The keyword here is INNOVATION. All current courses at University (and by implication, MCAST) fail miserably at this. This is not something graduates can pick up on their own or on the job; most employers only care about getting projects over and done with ASAP, shoving whatever in-house products and technologies are already available down clients' throats.

Like it or not, the world is run by businessmen. Despite everyone's best intentions, chances are clients don't really care how elegant your recursive functions look or how sleek those AI techniques are. Clients care about ROI, not the Big O notation. The language of business is business, not Haskell or C#.

Are our Comp.Sci. / MCAST graduates conversant?

K. Vella

May 31st 2009, 00:56

[2/3]

One thing I'm concerned about is that, despite there being a gazillion different roles, disciplines, and areas of specialisation in ICT, most employers and commentators still view IT "professionals" (IT is not legally a profession but everyone likes to think of him/herself as such) as mere code monkeys. In fact, you're lambasting young candidates only based on their coding abilities and/or their ability (or lack thereof) to learn and adapt to a new programming language or methodology. Also, ask any University or MCAST ICT student what job they're aspiring to, and chances are you'll get a "ħeqq, mhux programmer jew?"

But are code monkeys all the market *really* needs? What about Systems Analysts or skills in Business Intelligence, Data Mining, Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management, or the production of user-centred software/web applications? (NB. Passing a credit that teaches how to create a document in Dreamweaver and put together a couple of lines in PHP/.NET does not a web designer/developer make.)

K. Vella

May 31st 2009, 00:50

[1/3]

It's interesting to read these comments by employers who are University graduates themselves. I'm a recent graduate too and although my pre-University background always revolved around computing and programming, I was also exposed to management issues at University. Hopefully that puts me in a slightly better position to understand the concerns on both sides, or at least see beyond the tip of my nose...

I still believe the targets we're trying to reach are exaggerated and well beyond our means. The Lisbon Agenda and the local Smart Island Strategy may have caught our educational institutions unprepared. Seeing that some countries (case in point, India) are now producing some 400,000 engineers per year surely triggered some alarms the world over.

Then out of nowhere we got the prospect of SmartCity (whenever it opens) – it was politicised and portrayed as a pie in the sky – and all of a sudden, all parents want their kids to enroll in ICT courses, "ħalli ssib job." The maintenance grant for ICT students at University was increased, thus attracting students who were not genuinely interested in ICT but figured they would go just for kicks (and some extra pocket money.)

carmel pule

May 31st 2009, 00:41

As an examiner I have my own reasons for saying what I am going to say.

OH, if I could only bring back to Malta my old Dockyard School which was not referred to as a COLLEGE nor a UNIVERSITY but where all the super qualified impartial teaching staff came from abroad, changed every four years, and where the examinations papers were set by Admiralty personnel in Plymouth and where all the examinations answer scripts went back to be corrected by unknown highly qualified Admiralty personnel where no one dared to question the examiners' standards and accreditation levels. The staff and heads of section and the principal of the dockyard school never dared to question the examiners decisions.

OH if only I could bring all that back to Malta, for when I attended my university in UK I found that what was called simply a school was much more than that due to the students and staff never daring to question the unknown external examiners' decisions.

Daniela Cefai

May 30th 2009, 19:09

Adrian, montecarlo approaches and genetic algorithms are not theorems ;-)

C. Farrugia, that answers your question about his educational level.

Joe Fenech

May 30th 2009, 18:38

INVESTIGATE THE SYSTEM AND FIND SOLUTIONS...

rather than slating lecturers who are just trying to keep their head above water!

Adrian Borg

May 30th 2009, 17:38

@ C. Farrugia don't you think that you're going a bit personal there? And if you did this to verify that I really am a Uni graduate, don;t you think that your verification process is a bit lame as I could easily go to the Uni site and pick a course from there?

And yes I made a reference to the ICTSA and I believe that yes the problem was solved, even if up to my knowledge MCAST students don't go into such theorems. This contradicts the negative comments though doesn't it?! As either the MCAST students could grasp and implement such techniques in a weekend, or else they offered creative thinking and came up with a unique solution themselves ;)

Dr. Savior Tortell Pisani

May 30th 2009, 17:37

@Kaydee Zammit

I'm sorry to contradict you my friend!

I actually lecture at MCAST and I've been doing so for donkey's years! Standards ARE a problem... and the qualifications DO NOT reflect the actual ability of the student. Logging the attendance and mere completion of assignments is NOT a good way of assessing students. The latter are MASTERS at deceiving the system... Therefore the results are rigged!

There you go you.. Now you have it from the horse’s mouth!

Employers are justified in their complaints. They often discover learning and adaptation difficulties in their employees a little too late. We are doing them a big disservice by claiming quality which is not there!

We are also doing a disservice to the few truly excellent students that are being unfairly diluted by their incompetent peers!

It's hard to judge in a 30 minute interview and also I blame the employers for being too kind when they give them the benefit of the doubt. In this I agree with you, Kaydee.

C. Farrugia

May 30th 2009, 17:22

@Adrian Borg
If you are referring to the programming competition organised by ICTSA I can assure you that vocational courses students are not up to solving the problem which was presented (no matter how good they are) since it involved the use of theoretical methods . I am aware that montecarlo approaches and also genetic algorithms were used in that competition and I am pretty sure that vocational students do not go into this theory.

May you state which course you attended at university, because there are different ICT related courses. In fact there are those that are more focused towards management such as the Business and Computing course.

Kaydee Zammit

May 30th 2009, 16:57

@ M. Pace
You have completely missed my point. I would certainly not recommend a friend whose abilities are doubtful to work with me because I firmly believe that friendship and careers do not mix. I was merely condemning Cefai's ignorant comment because if she has employed ex-MCAST students who are not capable of doing good jobs, I don't think that says much about her abilities to employ people. I know for a fact that there are many MCAST students in IICT who are more than capable of doing a good job, and I also know for a fact that the assignments requested are not as easy as Cefai seems to think. A vegetable would NOT obtain the pass criteria, let alone the distinctions ones! If Cefai does not know which potential employees to select then that is her problem and no one else's. She should learn how to spot good employees instead of moaning about them afterwards. Being an IT employer does not automatically make you ax expert on the MCAST system, and she really doesn't seem to be an expert if she does not even recognize the difficulties of the assignments requested by MCAST students.

Adrian Borg

May 30th 2009, 16:55

@ M.Pace - "Typical arrogance I was talking about in my previous point - read Adrian Borg comment."

Where in my posts have I said that I am a current or former MCAST student?

What if I tell you that I graduated from University 5 years ago, and now hold a position in the IT industry where I usually employ MCAST students rather than Uni students? ;)

Joe Fenech

May 30th 2009, 16:08

C. Farrugia and S. Calleja, BSc(Hons) IT, MSc, MBA (Maas) :

Spot on!

Joe Fenech

May 30th 2009, 15:59

This education disaster is the result of a mess that our incompetent managers/experts/advisors/politicians have created. Then the little fish have to be disciplined just because it is them who have to deal with the realities of this chaotic situation.

C. Farrugia

May 30th 2009, 15:56

In fact, from time to time I am expecting the University of Malta to withdraw Pure Mathematics from being a requirment to the ICT degree in order to allow more students to start the course.

If the content of the course remains as it i.e. highly mathematical (and I totally agree with that), I am pretty sure that those people without pure mathmetics will be barely able to successfully complete first year. This is unfair to the students, because they will end up losing years which could be spent at other institutions with courses that are more appropriate for them.

M. Pace

May 30th 2009, 15:49

Typical arrogance I was talking about in my previous point - read Adrian Borg comment.

@Kaydee - be also sure that the other way round happens as well. Also most employers especially those that have a bitter experience, ask their own trustee employees to recommend their friends to come and work with them. Now will you recommend your friend knowing that his attitude etc. is not right? Remember that if a project failed - the whole team has failed irrespective who is the main fault, and since you are part of the team you have also failed even if your work was state of the art.

And believe me there is no better way to leave a company A to move to a company B with a recommendation from A - yes the company you are leaving!

So please look at things also from the employer's perspective.

@K. Vella - 100% agree with you and the best young kids will make it to the top by integrating with the seniors and learn learn learn and keep learning new technologies. This is IT.

Peter Mifsud

May 30th 2009, 15:42

@ Joe Fenech

I have to agree.... MCAST started off well. It was a vocational school designed to teach very specific skills to support industry - all good so far!

Today, the MCAST model is a self defeating paradox! Now it strives to capture all the students that failed University entry in a bid to convert them to a degree-level that competes with University... O.o? Who invents this crap? o.O

Qed inraqqghu l-pannu bil-qargha ahmar!!!

The only victims are the lecturers who are being asked to perform miracles!!

Joe Fenech

May 30th 2009, 15:40

Ministers and the Education Department needs to review the entry requirements at MCAST instead of victimising this poor teacher who is most likely to be struggling to get things done with students that didn't have the required skills and disposition to join the course. All this teacher was trying to do was save his job and reputation: he could be an excellent teacher but faced with dodos!

Get it in your head ministers, Edu Dept: You can't expect results from people who are low achievers. Stop this hippy philosophy of 'uber-democracy' where everyone is entitled to everything. We are all good at different things and it's for us to find our route.

We need tough selection for our courses rather that low entrance requirements! Come on, be serious and don't waste our taxes on future failures.

Daniela Cefai

May 30th 2009, 15:38

C. Farrugia & Joe Fenech ... Great arguements.

K. Vella did make a good point saying that "this strategy to churn out "ICT graduates" by the dozen at all costs is unfortunately catching on at University as well. " It is a pity that the University is competing with MCASTs three year degree.

S. Calleja, BSc(Hons) IT, MSc, MBA (Maas)

May 30th 2009, 15:27

The system is currently not fair on the lecturers. Having been an ICT lecturer myself, I can confirm that lecturers are put under great pressure to have most of the class pass the exam. This is by no means a simple task due to the following reasons:

1. The government's obsession with mass producing ICT people, sacrificing quality in the process, hence the low entrance requirements to relatively advanced ICT courses (such as computer science subjects).

2. The hype created by the media that ICT is a secure job ensuring future riches, causing students with an aptitude to other subjects to pursue a career in ICT against their will, under pressure from their parents.

3. The perception that ICT is relatively simple. While this is true for some topics, other topics are highly abstract and, unfortunately to say, difficult to grasp by the average IQ student.

Facing this situation, lecturers go to great lengths to have demotivated, uninterested students pass their exams. They are put under great pressure to lower exam paper standards and spoonfeed the student to achieve this short term goal, with a detrimental effect to the industry and the value of their qualification.

C. Farrugia

May 30th 2009, 15:23

@Adrian Borg

At a university, you are not taught a programming language....you are taught programming concepts. If you then want to learn a language you should go home, buy a book and learn it by yourself.

That is the difference between a vocational and a theoretical university course.

Daniela Cefai

May 30th 2009, 15:19

Ah Robert.

Adrian, I didn't say it myself!

Joe Fenech

May 30th 2009, 15:18

Daniela Cefai:

"Skill and excellence only comes through hard work and dedication and since the students at MCAST are so diverse due to the very low entry requirements, the best students get it easy rather than being pushed to their limits. "

This seems to be very elliptical! You can have low entry requirements, but one needs to ensure that graduates meet graduate standards. Now if we'r expecting people who are unable to cope with these kind of courses to graduate, then, voila: we're putting teachers under pressure. Teacher can't get the results if the students are not prepared for such courses. Issues like the one in question at the moment will emerge (or not). The Education Department should deal with this rather than slating this ICT teacher.

This 'all courses are available to anyone' is a UK import. The UK is facing a massive education catastrophe. They ended up with O'levels (GCSEs) and A level being made up of about 70% coursework (ie work students do in school!). Imagine if one teaches in a weak school and results are expected.. Teachers in this case will have no other option than cheating!

Adrian Borg

May 30th 2009, 15:17

@ Robert Sultana

Really with the help of their lecturers? Just because they push them to the limits?

C. Farrugia

May 30th 2009, 15:17

I also believe that at a university, students will not have any hand holding - they have to struggle on their own to make it all way long. They will also be indirectly trained in stress management because they have to face regular difficult examinations (most of them of mathemtical nature) and also a huge amount of assignments to be delivered in a very short period of time. This may be considered to be cruelty by students, however that is the reality with software development and people who are working in the industry can surely confirm that software development requires disciplined people who can handle a huge amount of stress.

I believe that students should strive to get the necessary requirments to ideally attend a university, however there is place for vocational instutions for those people who do not make it.

C. Farrugia

May 30th 2009, 15:15

I believe that one has to understand that MCAST and University courses are of different nature. MCAST courses are vocational courses. This implies that students will not be exposed to the theoretical backgrounds of the subjects. They will only learn a version of a particular technology and that is it. That is the nature of a vocational course.

A university course on the other hand is very different. At university, ICT students are equipped with all the required theoretical and mathematical foundations and very little effort is spent on practise because it is assumed that if students can understand theoretical aspects of a technology, getting used to its practical use will be a breeze and I totally agree with this.

Continued...

Adrian Borg

May 30th 2009, 15:15

@ Daniela Cefai ... instead of keeping moaning about your MCAST employees, why don't you just issue them with a notice so that they start looking for work elsewhere?

I assure you that MCAST is no different from Uni when it comes to teaching of programming languages. Maybe MCAST students are at a disadvantage because they are not taught Personification of Evil ;)

Robert Sultana

May 30th 2009, 15:11

@ Adrian Borg

We know veeeery well what Microsoft's Imagine Cup is about.... and we also know that behind the curtains, the MCAST team had the help of half a dozen lecturers - busy working for 8 months since October... in the hope of catching up with the University teams.

And in the end they STILL did NOT win it this year either!
A university group did, with three short months of work and no unfair help!

Daniela Cefai

May 30th 2009, 15:08

I would expect MCAST to win a technology competition since MCAST students are taught technologies and Uni students are not, yet they never won the Malta round of the Imagine Cup competition. I will not make further comments about MCAST vs Uni at the Imagine Cup because they are very biased on what I heard rather than what I found out for myself.

Kaydee Zammit

May 30th 2009, 14:43

@Daniela Cefai
I would be very surprised if you find other ex-MCAST students willing to work for you from now on. A good employer is one who believes in his/her employees, and if you belittle your own workers as being of a very low standard that does not say much about your employer and employee selector abilities. Read between the lines!

Joe Fenech

May 30th 2009, 14:40

Daniela Cefai:

"The problem is, that I shouldn't invest in more than paying them to read a book or follow a good tutorial to bring their skills up to scratch."

Wow, if they can't use a book a tutorial, now that's shocking. They should be using these ALL THE TIME.

I'm not in the IT business, but I learnt how to use different languages and structures out of books and I programme regularly just for the fun of it! Once your mind learn how to work in a certain way then you can learn and switch systems easily.

Re your employees, you should have regular performance reviews. Does your company have an Employees' Handbook stating exactly what is expected from each position (ex self improvement?). No employer should take anything foregranted! Let's not just point at employees...

Daniela Cefai

May 30th 2009, 14:37

And to Joe Fenech:

Soon enough, MCAST is going to be awarding degrees to students who complete another year after their HND, i.e. that theoretically makes my employees one year short of a degree. One would have to be very gullible to believe that miracles can happen in one year. So in my book, MCAST degree vs. Uni degree, the latter is far superior. The reality is, there is no easy way out to getting a good education. Skill and excellence only comes through hard work and dedication and since the students at MCAST are so diverse due to the very low entry requirements, the best students get it easy rather than being pushed to their limits. I do not blame the students in no way, I only feel sorry for the best of them who are brainwashed to believe that they're getting what they need at MCAST when they most probably can be much better if they get themselves a solid education. I'm very sure that the best of them do natively have the capacity to complete a university degree if only they were to pull up their socks and get their entry requirements.

K. Vella

May 30th 2009, 14:20

@M. Pace

I share some of your views about the prevailing attitudes these days. I'm also a bit skeptical about the MCAST ICT course, but let's keep in mind that this strategy to churn out "ICT graduates" by the dozen at all costs is unfortunately catching on at University as well.

That said, I wouldn't hastily tar all young IT graduates with the same brush just because they happen to be the youngest kids on the block. In doing so, you're implicitly glorifying the experienced 'adult' IT workforce. Let's not forget the oldies too have regaled us with their fair share of mediocrity and sheer incompetence on many occasions.

Adrian Borg

May 30th 2009, 14:14

@ Daniela Cefai

You are putting all students in one basket! There are 4 Levels at the ICT Course in MCAST. I can guarantee you that those completing Level 3 and below are not suitable for demanding jobs in ICT, but student completing Level 4 are!

Can you specify which Level, your employees completed?

By any chance did you take a look at a recent programming competition, where from 7 groups, the software solution of 6 groups (which where Uni students and Uni graduates) crashed and only one (which was from an MCAST group) never did so? Or aren't you even keeping yourself alert on what's going on in the market?

Didn't you see this year's Microsoft Imagine Cup (I wonder if you even heard of it!), where Uni group and MCAST group ended up with the same number of points in the final, and the only thing that gave the competition away to the Uni group was trivial!

Grow up lady! If your company is failing it is your fault because you're not steering it in the right direction!

Tancred Abdilla

May 30th 2009, 14:04

I totally agree with M.Pace, Daniela Cefai, Dr. Pisiani etc..

I am also employing some MCAST product... and I'm sorry.. the attitude I face is most unpleasant! Their low standard coupled with a "know it all" attitude makes them impenetrable to any advice you may want to give them.

At MCAST they are given fish, not fishing rods. They are taught how to write one program in one language, how to assemble one engine or how to copy a circuit from a book, but they are not taught how to LEARN new things on their own, how to question things around them or how to think-up something new. So as employees, they rapidly become obsolete the minute a new programming language, or a new engine-type or a different circuit design paradigm appears on the market. Many of these students don't take training seriously.

Recently, MCAST rolled out the new degree programmes. However, I don't have too many high hopes. I fear it will be more of the same. MCAST has a deeply ingrained attitude problem. I recon, they have been inflated too much by too many vote-blinded politicians.

Daniela Cefai

May 30th 2009, 14:04

To sum up, I find that MCAST students (the very best of them) come with an expiry date. Then you will have to let them go and get new, cheap good MCAST grads to do your current work better than the previous MCAST grads. But if you want a good employee which you have long term plans for, don't look any further than uni grads, even if they come out less technically skilled in particular technologies than MCAST grads. Again, uni grads are capable of thinking, self training and become much better than MCAST grads in a matter of 6 months and continue to improve! So yes there is a place for MCAST grads and a place for uni grads, you just have to figure out how to use both wisely.

Daniela Cefai

May 30th 2009, 13:54

Dr Savior Tortell Pisani and M. Pace, very well said.

The problem is, that I shouldn't invest in more than paying them to read a book or follow a good tutorial to bring their skills up to scratch. University students prove to have the capacity to learn efficiently by themselves using these methods while MCAST students do not even scratch the surface of the topic. This is all due to all the spoon feeding that goes on at MCAST and students not receiving the right skills to learn how to learn!

I have another employee who made it to just the second year of his uni degree (equivalent to HND @ MCAST) and even he is capable of keeping himself up to scratch.

Sure, when my employees first started they were better at their job that uni grads, but the uni grads make a constant steady progress while MCAST grads stagnate to their MCAST course. Yes they were brilliant when they started and did their job well for the project I employed them for a few years ago, but I'm disappointed that for new projects with new concepts and technologies, they're practically useless.

M. Pace

May 30th 2009, 13:19

continued...

Furthermore, students wake up - don't forget that for a job now you are also competing with foreigners, not just your school mates. Is very easy to find someone that can be employed for the same salary of a maltese but with far better UPDATED skills. No not from India, but within the EU so can travel and work wherever he wants to and wherever the employer wants him to work.


Furthermore, I understand completely Daniela Cefai, because it could be that she had to employ them due to deadlines with projects, commitments with clients etc, and due to lack of skilled IT resources, she had no option but to employ them. Apparently these young employees think they reached the top of the world, and show no interest and dedication - very common attitude among young IT people.

However I am sure that once their old skills are completely obsolete and are not needed anymore, I am pretty sure they will get fired, or contract not renewed.

M. Pace

May 30th 2009, 13:13

@D. Abdilla
If you are with the illusion that you will get further IT training when employed, I am sorry you are living in fantasy world, especially in the difficult economic crises at the moment.

Yes companies do offer training but only to those committed and worth the investment for the future. Attitude of today's students is one of the main problems in IT, namely 'know it all' attitude, pride, lack of dedication and arrogance.

So your option D. Abdilla, is that With myPotential scheme you can get industry standard training that prepares you better for the challenges of today, but there again, these courses must be taken seriously since you may pass without studying as well. And as Anthony Neil Pace correctly pointed out - dedication - you need to study and sweat blood to make it to the top in IT. So don't expect companies will train you, first train yourself, show them you are worth the investment than yes you may get some training.

...see my next post

D. Abdilla

May 30th 2009, 12:37

@Daniela Cefai

If what you said it's true, then I should blame you for not investing more Education in your employees, which on the long run will bring more profit and work to your Company.

Sincerly
Mcast ICT Student

John Atkins

May 30th 2009, 09:20

I really do not agree with D.Cefai`s comments about MCAST students which is rather unfair to underestimate all just because she has a grudge against her own employees as it really sounds like the case. Employers have the right to interview prospective employees and use the probation period to evaluate ones abilities for the job, so she should have done her homework right and not label all MCAST students to be of a very low standard.

Joseph Galea

May 30th 2009, 09:19

Some comments I read below are of great courage to students attending MCAST (sic).
If we are expecting that any university or college bakes ready to eat pies; we are very wrong.
Give these kids a chance. We just have to look back and follow our personal time trail before we load our guns and shoot.
Most of them work hard, very hard.
This incident, if true, must be condemned and disciplinary action taken.
Why do we have to drag the students in?.
Have a nice w.e.
Joe the plumber

M.Tabone

May 30th 2009, 08:27

Exams at MCAST are mostly open book, and as someone implied students attending MCAST are not high achievers, in fact MCAST is originally a school to give a second chance to those students who might not be as good. I am referring to all courses mind you. One can judge this just by opening their prospectus - the requirements sometimes don't even require a single O' Level. I remember friends who use to attend there and it is part of their system that assignments are done in a way that they do it as homework, go back to school, the teacher corrects it for them, go back home etc and voila' Distinction. So I think that it should be adequate to drop charges and here I take the opportunity to tell the Maltese citizens to wake up and realize that MCAST is a waste of time, better if students focus and retry the exams and get into other post secondaries.

Joe Fenech

May 30th 2009, 02:35

Daniela Cefai:

This is not my field, but isn't the training offered at MCAST at pre-degree level? I can't figure out how someone without (at least) a BA can be employable in today's world (and this doesn't just apply to IT).

You said "students are good for very specific jobs using very specific technologies" - isn't this just because MCAST 'graduates' are still beginners in the IT field? If it's the case, it has nothing to do with the quality of teaching. If employers opt for the cheap-labour option and choose to work with these beginners, then they can't expect much.

Joe Fenech

May 30th 2009, 01:57

2 plausible reasons for the teachers' act:

1. Poor teaching on his part.

2. Pressure for high achievement regardless the (possible) low ability of the students.

Simon Swartz

May 29th 2009, 23:35

@Daniela Cefai
You seem to be a very talkative person, but I would like to see you taking those assignments just in case to assert the level of your knowledge.

It is true that half if not more of the students at ICT MCAST are not quality but quantity but there are also very good students. It is employers like you that push down the level and moral of hard studying students.

And you should have done your homework well before employing the said students with you, and not pointing your finger at others.

Anthony Neil Pace

May 29th 2009, 23:15

@Daniela Cefai

I am sorry to say this, but most of the students in this country are not as dedicated to their education as many may think.

I am a Student at MCAST IICT, and I have been there for 2 scholastic years now.

I must say, that the students you have hired, may not be updated to today's technologies, because they do not keep themselves up to date on the relevant technologies within the industry.

It is not the fault of the institute in anyway. I happened to be very satisfied with the education I am recieving at MCAST, and it is the Student who must keep up to date. not the Institute.

@ IICT, they give us a basis upon which WE are supposed to build upon. Most students however do not look at it that way.

Where is the dedication?! WE desprately need it in this country.

Dr Savior Tortell Pisani

May 29th 2009, 22:10

Issa lil min bi hsiebkom tbellawha din?? eh?? Bhal li kieku ma nafux x'qied jigri ta’ kuljum go l-MCAST!!!...MCAST management doesn’t have a leg to stand on in this holier-than-thou farce. This individual is a politically convenient scapegoat!!

MCAST has become one giant, politically convenient, sausage factory! The decree comes from ministerial level: ALL STUDENTS MUST GRADUATE...NO MATTER WHAT!...The politics demands numbers... large NUMBERS!!...Sausages/Hour! The *entire* system is *designed* to be utterly incapable of distinguishing between diligent and lethargic students.

Ethical academic behaviour is nonexistent with students freely plagiarizing each other's work and refusing all forms of higher thought...and all this is *CONDONED* by senior management rendering lecturers powerless! I had countless clashes over this!

Standards have literally fallen through the floor! Entrance requirements are shamefully low. Examinations are few and far between! Many (most) students are utterly disinterested in using their brains. Anything that involves anything beyond simple thought is shunned and the lecturers are the real victims, facing rowdy protests from all sides the minute they attempt to raise the standard one notch!!! Ejja ma ndahkux mela!!

Mario Pace

May 29th 2009, 21:15

I would like to state that the person who signed as M.Pace has no connection with me and I do not share his/her views. I am clarifying this since people might think that I have wrote that comment myself. Since I am part of the management at ICT (MCAST), I will not comment further on the topic, and ask everyone to think before they write and to wait for the board to do its work.

Daniela Cefai

May 29th 2009, 21:10

I agree with M. Pace. The students that come out of MCAST are very well known to be very low standard. As an employer in the ICT industry, it is well known to me and any other ICT employers that the very best of MCAST students are good for very specific jobs using very specific technologies and most of these students are used as cheap labor. The MCAST graduates I have working with me now are useless for today's technologies since they "graduated" a few years ago. Their pay should decrease rather than increase. Kaydee Zammit, I have seen in much detail how assignments are carried out and the "pass criteria" you mention are ridiculous. Given that students get a checklist of very specific things of what to do to get a distinction, I would think that only a vegetable can't get a distinction. And of course, vegetables get straight distinctions too in the ICT course at MCAST. Provably. So yes, I agree with M. Pace and think that MCAST should really start teaching students how to think rather than how to use today's technologies. Not to mention the sheer arrogance most MCAST grads display thinking they're top notch.

Marion Pace

May 29th 2009, 20:58

@M.Pace some of the students perhaps but not most. A friend of mine has told me that some are even better than University Students when they participate in projects by foreign Universities /Institutes. It all depends on both student and lecturer.

Franco Farrugia

May 29th 2009, 19:02

@ M. Pace: What a fool to be sure! I (who have nothing to do with MCAST but am an educator) am really disgusted at your comment. How can you think that just because there was this singular incident, the whole of MCAST is rotten? If you were a gentleman, you would retract. But gentlemen are hard to find. What a negative comment! For shame!

Kaydee Zammit

May 29th 2009, 17:07

@ M Pace "So now we know why the quality of most students coming out of ICT MCAST is far below the level requested by the industry. " Oh, really? And how do you know that? The courses at MCAST, ICT in particular are very difficult and each pass criteria in each assignment submitted must be passed in order for the student to receive the diploma. This lecturer in particular is very outgoing and was by favourite lecturer at MCAST by far. I don't know all the details of this case. Many students love him and he's a great lecturer. When he taught me I passed with flying colours and NOT because he distributed any answers to us personally, because he never did. He's basically a great guy and not afraid to speak his mind, so I have complete faith that the matter will be resolved in a matter of time. He used to go the extra mile to teach us on things examinable and even those which are not, because he really has the students at heart. I hope to God that everything will be fine soon, and am truly sorry to see this happening.

A Anderson

May 29th 2009, 16:50

This seems to be Staff Malpractice possibly leading to a breach of security of the examination. Is there any particular set up in Malta which investigates this? And is there a process in place to deal with such issues? In the UK it is dealt with by the Awarding Body concerned whilst the Head of the Centre (School) helps with the investigation.

Link for the Joint Council for Qualifications document that deals with instances of Malpractice and penalties applied which can be of interest.
http://www.jcq.org.uk/attachments/published/276/JCQ%20Suspected%20Malpractice%2007-08.pdf

J. Fiorentino

May 29th 2009, 15:49

Why aren't model answers distributed to lecturers soon AFTER exams are over?

Mike Micallef

May 29th 2009, 14:04

What is curious is the timing of events. It seems that the Director of the ICT Institute acted promptly and should be praised for that. What is curious is whether the Principal of MCAST referred the case to the Disciplinary Board ONLY after the case was reported on another section of the media.

M. Pace

May 29th 2009, 13:54

So now we know why the quality of most students coming out of ICT MCAST is far below the level requested by the industry.

James Grech

May 29th 2009, 13:44

I some extent one has to sympathise with this poor fellow, most probably he is new to his job. However the alluded pressure that these lecturers get so that large numbers of students pass from one year to the next and thus produce better, catchy, statistical figures is not unheard off.