Maltese and Maths O levels should no longer be mandatory University entry requirements for students with learning difficulties, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said.
“I feel exceptions should be made in case of subjects like Maltese and Maths, especially when they are not crucial for the course being followed,” Mr Bartolo said when asked about possible changes to the University entry requirements for impaired applicants.
The education authorities have, in recent weeks, faced calls from a number of academics and stakeholders for obstacles impeding the intellectually-impaired from furthering their education to be removed.
A conference held by the Faculty for Social Well-being heard parents of autistic youths describe the Maltese O level requirement for entry at the University of Malta as being “just as impossible to overcome as a flight of steps facing a wheelchair user”.
“My son will never be proficient in both Maltese and English. His condition prohibits him from achieving this. But, why should that stop him from being an engineer,” one parent wondered aloud.
I feel exceptions should be made in case of subjects like Maltese and Maths
At a similar conference organised by Labour MEP Miriam Dalli a few days earlier, autism advocate Emily Slater detailed her struggle to further her studies at the University, a case she has since taken up with the European Parliament.
Ms Slater was refused admission to the Msida campus after failing to attain her Maltese O level and her pleas to be considered as an exception based on her impairment fell on deaf ears.
Many autistic people, she argued, were only able to speak one language but this did not mean they could not further their education.
“Not being able to speak Maltese means that many autistic youths have to wait until they are mature students to enter a university course. Many think this situation is fair but I beg to differ. It is imperative for our social development to be with our peer group. It is time that our situation gets recognised and looked into,” she said.
Psychology lecturer Elena Tanti Burlò said it was unfair that students with learning difficulties were barred from entering university because of one specific requirement.
She warned that students who were unable to learn Maltese became disturbed and anxious, which stopped them from functioning in other subjects in the classroom. Universities abroad had already introduced requirement waivers for such students, she added.
This newspaper reported on Saturday that intellectual-impaired students were far more likely to sit for O level examinations than they were a decade ago but the number of them making it to University was still negligible.
The University pro-rector for student affairs, Carmen Sammut, said that the number of students receiving assistance to sit for their O levels had shot up from just short of 100 to more than 600 over the past decade.
More were also sitting for A levels with the number of those requesting special access arrangements growing from about 20 to 120.
The situation at the University, however, was not reflective of society. Dr Sammut said there were fewer than 100 receiving assistance for their learning difficulties.
Mental Health Commissioner John Cachia insisted the number was “certainly too low”.
“If the campus is really going to reflect society as a whole, then it needs to be accessible and more must be done,” he said.