Students sitting for an English A level mock examination recently were shocked to find one of their tasks was to write an argumentative piece on why illegal immigration is a “crisis for our country”, this newspaper has learnt.
The exam for students at the Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary School was held in preparation for the A level exam, which is being held this morning.
The question that upset the students goes on to describe irregular migration as “straining our economy, adding costs to our judicial, healthcare and education system”.
Concerned students who sat for the exam complained that the question was biased, xenophobic and could serve to encourage those sitting for the exam to write pieces that frame migration, refugees and migrants in a negative light.
The argumentative piece had to be not less than 450 words – as is expected by the Matsec board during the A level exam – and students were given eight different questions to choose from. They could choose to write descriptive pieces or fiction stories, as well as the argumentative piece.
The question was not written by the examiners but was a popular quote by a US politician
When contacted, the Education Ministry said the question was not written by the examiners but was a popular quote by a US politician and was in no way meant to encourage xenophobia. Instead, the task was aimed at testing the students’ abilities to develop and sustain critical arguments.
The spokesman reiterated that the question – chosen by teachers in the school’s English department – was not one specifically written for the exam but was a quote by Timothy Murphy, a Republican US congressman.
“The quote was clearly presented as a quotation in the exam paper and therefore not as a matter-of-fact statement. Although the statement is identifiable as a quote through the use of inverted commas, in hindsight, it could have been better cited,” he said, adding that the 2006 quote had become part of mainstream discourse in US and European politics.
The ministry believed, he went on, that mature students who were around 18 years old when sitting for the exam, needed to be “stimulated in developing further and have the required critical thinking skills to understand and analyse the depth and repercussions of such rhetoric”.
According to the spokesman, this was a crucial element of the English A level programme, which over the years had developed in such a way that encouraged critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity.
“Sheltering students about to engage in their tertiary education from such realities, even if controversial, would only be illusionary as they inevitably face such issues and will increasingly be required to be contributing in addressing these and other sensitive issues as active participants in contemporary society,” he said.