Students attending primary schools, their teachers and parents are irked at changes to the social studies syllabus announced by the education authorities after the scholastic year had already started.

The changes affect students in year six who will be sitting for the common entrance examination and the Junior Lyceum exams early next year.

Components on pre-history and World War II, among others, have replaced the component on St Paul's stay in Malta. A section on the internet was also included.

A section on the weather and temperature was replaced by a section on countries around the Mediterranean and the section on environment and preservation were merged due to their relevance in today's world.

One parent, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she could not understand why the syllabus had been changed after the scholastic year had started.

Moreover, she said students had used the summer months to prepare themselves for the exams and were now told that what they had revised was being excluded from the syllabus.

She said her child attended a private school, which started a week before state schools, and had had a full week of social studies lessons.

The books were also very misleading because great chunks had to be crossed out. This confused children and parents as to what they had to study or not, she said.

An Education Ministry spokesman confirmed that a circular indicating a change to the guidelines of the social studies syllabus for 2009-2010 was issued on September 30, two days after the start of the new scholastic year.

He said it was "standard practice over the past three years" for items included in the examination guidelines to be circulated to all schools at the beginning of the scholastic year.

When asked, the spokesman said the decisions were taken by the education officer responsible for the subject "after consultation with superiors".

When contacted, the president of the Malta Union of Teachers, John Bencini, said the union was "very worried" such things were happening and that decisions were being made without the involvement of teachers, who had to implement the decisions.

Mr Bencini said the education authorities were treating teachers "like machines", giving them no time at all to prepare themselves for the changes to the syllabus. He flatly denied that changing syllabi at the beginning of the scholastic year was standard practice.

On the contrary, he said, teachers were usually informed at the end of the scholastic year so that the changes could be addressed during development and training seminars organised for them during the summer holidays.

"We are very concerned these things are happening, giving the impression of crisis management and treating teachers as if they were machines. If teachers are not directly involved in the decision-making processes, we cannot expect an improvement in the standard of education we provide in this country," he said.