Many sixth form students are sitting for some of their Advanced and Intermediate Matriculation examinations in the September session after they have completed only the first year of their two-year course of studies, before they had obtained “a mature understanding of the subjects” a recent report by the Matsec Support Unit stated.
In fact, 1,181 candidates, or 39.9 per cent, used the September 2016 session as their first sitting. The report added that this was “an unintended outcome” of a change in the Matsec exam regulations introduced in 2012 whereby the May and September sittings became two separate sessions and candidates were allowed to satisfy the criteria for the award of the Matsec certificate over a period of five years.
The report also revealed that some A-level subjects have become more popular while others have suffered significant losses, after comparing the registration data of the 4,026 candidates in 2016 with that of 3,634 candidates in 2006.
For example, in 2016 there were 2.1 per cent, 2.4 per cent and three per cent more candidates sitting for Biology, Chemistry and Maltese respectively. On the other hand there were 2.3 per cent, 3.6 per cent and 3.8 per cent fewer candidates in English, Computing and Accounting respectively in 2016. But the biggest losses were in Physics and Pure Mathematics, with 4.8 per cent and 7.8 per cent less candidates in 2016 respectively.
At Intermediate level, the introduction of Psychology in 2013 attracted many students who used to opt for other humanities subjects in previous years. In fact, in 2016, 25.6 per cent of all candidates sat for Psychology while Religious Knowledge, Sociology and Philosophy suffered losses of 6.1 per cent, 6.7 per cent and 10.8 per cent respectively when the 2006 figures were taken into account. The report said: “The reasons for these gains and losses may be various and complex but it is important to carry out research to identify them and to stem the negative trend.”
Last year happened to be the 20th anniversary since the Matriculation Certificate was established as the requirement for admission to undergraduate courses at the University of Malta. This provided the Matsec Support Unit with the opportunity to evaluate changes and trends in the regulations, registrations, results and other statistical data over the years.
The report compared the performance by male and female students in the various subjects over the 20-year period, revealing that a gender gap still persists. “Perhaps the most telling difference is between the percentages of 18-year-old males and females who obtained the Matriculation Certificate in 2016. Overall, a record of 28.2 per cent of children born in 1998 were awarded the certificate, however there is still a very large gap of 14.6 per cent between the successful males and females which has persisted over the last 20 years.”
The unit said that while the regulations were still demanding, over the years they have become less rigid in order to allow more students with the potential to follow tertiary level courses to do so.
In the first session of the Matriculation Certificate in 1997 the regulations required candidates to satisfy the criteria for the award of the certificate in one session, which included the September supplementary session. If they narrowly failed to do so, they were allowed to sit for one subject in the next session to satisfy all the criteria. In subsequent years this allowance was extended to two years.
In addition, from 1997 to 2009, candidates who wanted to sit for one subject only could do so provided that it was an Advanced level but passes in single subjects did not count for the award of the Matriculation Certificate. Then in 2010, candidates were allowed to sit for single subjects in both Advanced and Intermediate level subjects.
The full report may be accessed at the link below.
www.um.edu.mt/matsec/reports/statisticalreport