The majority of secondary school students who attend private lessons to make sure they pass their Matsec and O level exams do not really need the extra tuition, according to a school counsellor and a psychologist.

“I think it’s unnecessary for many of the students to go to private lessons... What they learn at school is enough for them,” said Ian Refalo, a psychotherapist and school counsellor.

Educational psychologist Victor Martinelli agreed saying: “There is a culture of private lessons where even students who do reasonably well at school attend private lessons.”

Mr Refalo and Dr Martinelli agreed with the outcome of a European Commission study published on Monday showing that the private lessons’ industry in Malta became almost “crucial” for students, even in cases where it was evident they were not necessary.

In 2008, 78 per cent of Maltese fourth and fifth formers attended some kind of private lessons in preparation for O level and Matsec exams.

The study concludes that private lessons were having negative effects on students because they restricted children’s leisure time.

Mr Refalo said that, going by his experience with third to fifth formers, there were three main reasons why students attended such lessons. First, there were the genuine cases who needed help with a particular subject. Secondly, private lessons were a way of parents ensuring their children spent time studying. Then, there were those students who attended because everyone else was doing so.

Mr Refalo found that while the volume of work was stressful on students, most were reluctant to give up private lessons. “Unfortunately, students often give priority to private lessons over school work,” he said.

He added that the school system – where students had to pass certain core subjects to enter sixth form – was the main drive behind private lessons.

As a result of the system, parents pushed their children to do well through private lessons.

Dr Martinelli said parents often pressured their children to do well and sent them to private lessons for the extra push.

He personally thinks school hours are not long enough and do not give teachers time to expand on points students may not have grasped completely during a lesson, particularly as the cognitive load increases in secondary school.

He was concerned that the streaming system, which is being phased out to ease stress on students, was being replaced by a setting that was “like streaming in individual subjects” and, therefore, the stress element was not really tackled in its entirety.

The reform, which effectively comes into force in the next scholastic year, replaces streaming with a benchmarking exam at the end of primary school. The exam will serve as a benchmark of the pupils’ attainment and the students in secondary school will then be taught in groups, through a setting mechanism, depending on their needs in different subjects, rather than streamed into different classes as is the case now.

The outgoing president of the Malta Union of Teachers, John Bencini agreed that the reform did not do away with the streaming system but renamed it as benchmarking.

He felt the education system of benchmarking and setting had been the main reason why students were going to private lessons followed by parents’ pressures to do well. In some cases, students opted for private lessons because they did not understand a particular teacher.

He said the union always disagreed with sending students to private lessons as their time in school should suffice.