I read with interest Kurt Sansone’s interview with Kevin Bonello, the president of the MUT (The Sunday Times of Malta, July 31).

The interview dealt with so many issues related to teaching but I will restrict my comments to Mr Sansone’s initial question and Mr Bonello’s reply.

Referring to the Matsec O level results Mr Sansone points out: “The MUT was not pleased with the results, going so far as to say ‘we told you so’.” It would be interesting to learn where the impression that O level results were worse than previous years came from.

The number of passes (Grades 1 to 5) in mathematics has been constant (around 54 per cent) since 2005 and I would assume that it is the same with English and Maltese

The same is true for the different grades: six per cent of the students got Grade 1; eight per cent, Grade 2; 10 per cent, Grade 3; 14 per cent, Grade 4; 16 per cent, Grade 5, 12 per cent, Grade 6; 10 per cent, Grade 7; and 20 per cent, Unclassified. These results have changed only minimally over the years.

Mr Sansone’s question and Mr Bonello’s reply seem to imply that there were less successful results in the examinations due to the “hurried” introduction of the College system in 2008.

The SEC results do not suggest this and the success or failure of the College system has to be judged by other criteria. I do, however, agree with Mr Bonello that teachers, especially those who had taught Junior Lyceum students and selective Church schools for many years, were not prepared to teach mixed ability classes. Indeed most State secondary schools tried to solve this problem by adopting setting in the core subjects (Mathematics, Maltese and English).

Some Church schools, especially those which accepted students on the basis of their success in the common entrance examination, probably experienced the most difficulties, especially if their students were not set.

The SEC results of students attending these schools were bound to decline as these schools started admitting students based on a ballot system rather than on the basis of the common entrance examination. However, overall, the May 2016 SEC results were the same as for previous years.