Last Wednesday, during an event organised by the Malta Union of Teachers and Aġenzija Żgħażagħ for secondary school students, the topic of extending the school leaving age to 18 was brought up and voted on by the students themselves. What is your opinion on the matter?

I don’t think extending the school- leaving age will solve the education system’s problems. Education should focus on nurturing students’ individual talents rather than on mass-producing graduates. If this is not achieved by the age of 16, an extra couple of years will not make any difference. Dora Lee Borg, 23, MSc in Engineering.

I do not think the school-leaving age should be extended to 18. Students should be free to choose whether they want to continue studying after 16 or if they want to start working straight away. Stefan Grech, 19, Extended Diploma in IT.

I agree with the proposal but only if adjustments are made to the post-secondary educational system. It is not ideal to extend secondary education without first reducing or even eliminating post-secondary education. From my personal experience I feel my post-secondary education was of negligible use since most of the material I studied in sixth form had already been covered in secondary school. Jan Camilleri, 23, Doctor of Laws.

In this same event, the introduction of coed classes was also voted upon. Could this change improve Malta’s educational system?

I think co-ed classes will not improve grades, but it will help students adapt better to the real world once secondary school is over. Dora Lee Borg

A lot of educational systems abroad have co-ed classes which work well. Locally, it works well in both primary school and tertiary level, so I don’t think it should be a problem at a secondary level. Stefan Grech

I believe that in this day and age, it is important for students to be mixed and to experience a co-education. I never really grasped the rationale behind gender-specific schools. Students can only benefit from such a system. Jan Camilleri

Primary school classes were previously streamed, but streaming was removed by the previous government. What do you think of this change?

I think streaming should be more than classifying students into levels based on their academic ability. Streaming should be used to cater for the diversity in students and hence provide them with the right material to eventually succeed. Dora Lee Borg

I think classes should not be streamed. Although streaming students might have some positive results, I think the negative aspects outweigh the positive ones. Stefan Grech

Although I agree with the concept of merit, I don’t agree with the streaming students. I find that categorising children according to their intellect and abilities is an archaic procedure, which has no place in today’s world. Ultimately, I believe a determined student will excel in any environment, regardless of the intellect and ability of his classmates. Jan Camilleri