BLUES TIME

At this time of the year, actually a bit earlier (when the weather starts getting milder, basically) I used to get a vague feeling of unease. It bothered me, until I realised that it was just a recollection of the feeling of impending doom that used to grip me in its death-like grip. This was when my carefree existence at Tal-Qroqq was blighted by this insistence on the part of the poor souls who used to teach me law that, for some occult reason known only to them, they needed to examine me.

Before that, unknown purveyors of fact, both here and in the UK, used to take similar sadistic pleasure in subjecting me to the rack.

So it was hardly surprising that, Easter holidays having gone, I'd start looking at the world in something of the same way turkeys looked at Xmas. Truth be told, I should probably have started worrying well before that, as my exam results consistently showed, but as I believe I've mentioned before, I tend to work to deadlines. In other words, I was, and tend to remain, a bit of a procrastinator, subconsciously clinging to the hope that it might go away. Exams rarely did, though Latin did, for which reason I have no idea.

The sheer terror accompanying the improving weather abated into mild, and unexplained, unease over the years, blipping back into more acute worry when the son and heir had a mild flirtation with exams. This was not to last long, as he had the strength of purpose (sheer bloody-mindedness, more like) to stick to doing what he wanted to do.

Over the last years, the unease has disappeared completely, with just a painless recollection coming to the fore when friends and family have an audible worry about the trials and tribulations of their own offspring.

The slightly rambling thoughts above were brought about by the news item about the blooper contained in a chemistry paper and the findings by the examining body, our august University, in connection therewith (just thought I'd chuck a bit of legalese in to show that I did, eventually, pass those confounded exams) I found myself thinking how lucky I was that I didn't have to worry about these things directly anymore.

So detached am from the whole exam scene, for all that in a few days I have to plough through a skip-load of scripts produced by students in years one and two of the Bachelor of Commerce course on whom I inflict my wit and wisdom, that I found myself wondering whether a fuss was being made about nothing very much. After all, according to the Uni's findings, there wasn't that much of an effect on the students who were caught up in the whole thing. To this, thanks to the comments section, many raspberries were blown, with quite justifiable questions on the lines of "who do you think you're kidding" and "why not take a long walk on a short pier" being addressed Tal-Qroqq-wards by concerned parents.

To be honest, rather than provocative, I can understand the concern and annoyance. The thought of your kid having to sit there and try to fathom out an answer to a question that a number of supposedly qualified fools hadn't noticed was impossible to answer, while undergoing the stress of exam-season, must be annoying, to say the least.

Leaving aside the particular incident, except to wonder whether it's not symptomatic of a far greater malaise in the system, is it time to review the whole exam thing?

Take it as a given that you need a method of testing intellectual acumen before letting people into higher education, but is the way things are done the right one?

I'm no educationalist, but I have this feeling that there's some significant tweaking that can be done.

Let's take the vexed question of Maltese as a peg on which to hang this hat. The myriad of foreign students who attend University courses in most subjects (virtually all, from what I can see) do so without having even a rudimentary knowledge of Maltese. Actually, apart from law, where a significant portion of the source material is in Maltese (and it's the student's problem if (s)he can't get at it the material, frankly) and Maltese itself, there is no subject that needs Maltese or that is taught or examined in Maltese (not even law) though as an aside, perhaps it's about time it was, so poor is the standard of English some students demonstrate (and here I find myself glancing fondly at Evarist Bartolo).

So why do Maltese kids have to get whatever exam they have to get in Maltese? Yes, fine, it's our national language and it's a shame that too many people choose to communicate in English instead, but let's be realistic, shall we? There is a snob element in the whole thing, true enough, but, hand on heart, is Maltese taught in a way that makes it attractive? From what I remember, turgid texts, impenetrable (and irrelevant) grammar and jingoistic attitudes permeate the fabric of the curriculum, the latter being a reaction to the perceived superiority-complex of the people who use English as a more predominant language at home and at school.

Is there any reason why Maltese has to be rammed down people's throats, really? If it was properly taught, rather than used as a war-horse by a cadre of class-warriors, perhaps people wouldn't find it so unpalatable. From a strictly utilitarian position, if I had to choose between knowing English and knowing Maltese, I'd have to opt for English (I'd do the same between English and French or Italian or German or Chinese) for all the contempt I feel towards those who eschew Maltese for "social" reasons, failing to realise that their English is almost as laughable.

The thing is, Maltese, for academic purposes, is pretty much a waste of time – this is not to say that it is not essential for other purposes, but surely it becomes the non-Maltese speaker's problem in this context? After all, you don't have to pass an exam in Maltese to be allowed to enter the university of life (awful phrase, but you get my drift) and the school of hard knocks (yeugh) soon bashes a working knowledge of the language into you.

Why do you need to get a result in what is probably the least fair exam paper (so I'm told) in order to get into the real university, where you don't actually need Maltese all that much?

This discussion can extend into other areas. Is there really any need to keep loading students up with irrelevant data and systems of knowledge (the lower case is deliberate)? Fine, a broader base of information is a fine thing in theory, but is it all morphing into box-ticking rather than proper education? Time for a bit of thought, methinks.