Malta has the lowest rate of repeaters within its education system, an EU survey has found.

Repeating a year during compulsory education in Malta is a very rare occurrence, according to a study published in Brussels by Eurydice on the initiative of the European Commission.

There are EU member states that adopt a culture of grade retention because they believe repeating a year gives students a more solid foundation in their academic future. This is applied in Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal.

Although the study leaves out certain statistics with regard to Malta because the island did not participate fully in the collection of data, information supplied by the Ministry of Education show that Malta has the lowest rate of “ repeaters” among the 27 member states.

According to the ministry, in this scholastic year ( 2010/ 11), only 0.44 per cent of students attending state primary schools are repeating their year and the percentage drops to just 0.2 per cent where it comes to lower secondary state schools.

No statistics were made available for private and Church schools although sources said the level of repeaters is similar.

“ In Malta, we don’t have a culture of grade retention as there is in certain other EU member states and repeating a year is a last resort in the interest of the student in question,” an Education Ministry official said.

While in many countries education progression includes attendance and behaviour, apart from academic progress, Malta adopts a system based on just academic assessment when it comes to the yearly decision on whether a student should advance to the next grade. So, if a Maltese student gets satisfactory marks in three compulsory subjects – Maltese, English and maths – s/ he will automatically qualify to move up to the next scholastic grade.

Other member states, such as Germany and France, widen their assessment on more subjects and not just the compulsory ones.

There are member states that also adopt a culture of grade retention because they believe repeating a year gives students a more solid foundation in their academic future. This culture is mostly present in Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal.

This explains the large disparities in the rate of repeaters among member states.

According to Eurydice – a European network on educational systems and policies – at primary level, Greece ( two per cent) and Austria ( 4.9 per cent) have low repetition grades whereas others have significantly higher rates, such as France ( 17.8 per cent), Portugal and the Netherlands ( 22.4 per cent). At lower secondary level, grade retention rates vary from 0.5 per cent in Finland to 31.9 per cent in Spain.

In both cases, Malta has the lowest rates of repeaters.

Although the study does not judge whether the so-called culture of grade retention is positive or not, it states that in countries where it is a recurrent feature the perception that repeating a year is beneficial for the pupil’s learning continues to prevail. “ Adapting the rules on grade retention is not enough to change this view,” the study notes.

“ It needs to be replaced with a different approach to managing pupils’ learning problems. The bottom line is that the main challenge lies more in calling certain views and beliefs into question than in changing the rules.”

According to Eurydice, the age of compulsory education also varies among member states with Malta having one of the lowest. In 24 member states, children start obligatory education when aged six. In Malta and the Netherlands, compulsory education starts when children are five years old. The youngest pupils to attend compulsory schooling are those in Northern Ireland where primary education starts at age four.

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