Truancy is under-reported and many students believe they are entitled to three days of ‘leave’ every month, which are not factored in, a shocked Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said yesterday.
Under the rules, children are excused from attending school only when they are sick and have to present a medical certificate if ill for longer than three days in one month.
“A number of students ask their teachers: ‘Have I taken my three days yet, Miss?’” said Mr Bartolo, calling it a “shocking reality”.
“Additionally, we have three different statistics on absenteeism so we need to establish which data is correct and where this is happening. These three days of ‘sick’ taken by students who are not really ill are not factored in. Yet three days taken every month of the scholastic year amounts to a significant number of days.”
In cases of absenteeism among primary school children, the parents need to bear the brunt of the problem, he said.
“We need greater enforcement. In cases where parents are receiving €400 a month in social benefits yet fail to send their children to school, they will stop getting those €400.”
The problem becomes slightly more complex with secondary school truants.
“If we point our finger at parents, blaming them for the problem with absenteeism in primary schools, then when it comes to secondary schools, we have three fingers pointing back at us.
“We need to see why these students are skiving. Is it out of habit? Or is it maybe also because schools are pushing children away?”
In January, the government started an alternative learning programme targeting 353 fifth formers who had not applied to sit for the O level exams.
A special programme was designed for them and they were taken to Sky Parks Business Centre, Microsoft and army training.
“Unfortunately, we only managed to gather 200 children from those 353. But we have some good success stories.”
Following up on the work begun by the previous administration, the government will be designing vocational syllabi and training people with the aim of introducing five subjects in a number of secondary schools for September.
These will include engineering, IT, hospitality, personal and social care and agribusiness. Subjects will be examined by a different board but will be equivalent to Matsec.
Consultation on strategy closes
The three-month consultation period for the framework for the Education Strategy has drawn to a close, with the ministry’s Research and Development Department receiving proposals from nearly 100 primary and secondary schools.
The Education Strategy, which will encompass the years 2014 to 2024, will have a very precise remit, the department’s director Frank Fabri said yesterday doing a conference.
It will focus mainly on raising the bar in Maltese, English, maths, science and digital literacy, after studies have persistently shown that 55 per cent of SEC students left school without possessing these basic skills.
“When schools took stock of the many hours devoted to activities, they were shocked to realise that not a lot of time was being allocated to these basic skills,” Dr Fabri said.
“Let us reduce the quantity of activities and outings and work on their quality instead.”
A lack of low-level skills resulted in a lack of high-level skills such as initiative taking, problem solving and creativity.
The upcoming scholastic year will see the introduction of physical and health education, music, art and design and technology as compulsory subjects for Form 1 students.
Form 3 students will see the introduction of accountancy.