The education authorities are exploring ways to adapt methods of teaching English as a foreign language to State schools, in the wake of concerns expressed over the decline in standards among school leavers.

Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said that as a first step, representatives from private English language schools had been invited to give in-service courses to primary school teachers. The intention is to take this initiative further.

“However, the methodology needs to be tweaked as in primary and secondary schools English is treated as a second language rather than any other foreign language,” Mr Bartolo said.

In actual fact, more students are failing in Maltese than in English

In another initiative, the ministry is in talks with Cambridge English, an institution within Cambridge University, as part of a plan to roll out a programme to improve proficiency in English across schools.

Mr Bartolo said it was quite ironic that a country with a strong reputation for its English language schools was struggling to maintain standards in its own educational system.

He reacting to an examiners’ report expressing “great concern” that 16-year-olds were leaving school with poor command of English despite having been exposed to the language for at least 10 years in the classroom.

The report, issued by the Matsec Examinations’ Board on the performance of candidates who sat for the English Language SEC certificate exam held last May, flagged inadequate standards of grammar, spelling and punctuation, adding that the lack of reading was becoming “alarmingly apparent”.

Mr Bartolo too said he was concerned at the situation but added that he was not surprised, as this trend had been apparent for a number of years.

“Since I was elected in Parliament over 20 years ago, I have been harping on the fact that rather than looking at the overall results, the authorities need to focus on the examiners’ report as this gives a better picture of the situation,” he told this newspaper yesterday.

He said that as soon as he was appointed minister, the contents of international studies comparing literacy levels among countries were thoroughly analysed to take stock of the situation.

The issue was not limited to English, he said, as concerns had been raised about the level of Maltese. “In actual fact, more students are failing in Maltese than in English,” he remarked. Touching on the role of teachers, he stressed that they too must be proficient in both languages.

“I fear that at times we may be resorting to Maltese not for patriotic reasons but simply due to the fact that we struggle to express ourselves in English, or vice versa,” he said.

‘Children not reading enough’

Andre Delicata, who lectures at St Aloysius College Sixth Form and at the Junior College, said parents should be made more aware of the importance of reading rather than allow their children to spend hours watching television.

He also called for smaller classrooms and for the re-introduction of old teaching methods, arguing that the modern approach had failed.

He expressed reservations about the SEC curriculum, saying it did not encourage critical thinking or understanding beyond the obvious.

In addition, the use of “atrocious” English in other subjects should not be allowed, so as to instil discipline in the proper use of the language, he said.

Mr Delicata noted that the problem was not only limited to schools but to Maltese society in general. The poor literacy levels, in both Maltese and English, were very much on show in public posts at timesofmalta.com.

Three other teachers at a State secondary school who preferred to remain anonymous echoed most of the views expressed by Mr Delicata.

They noted how technology had taken over in a very short time and students were much keener on using their laptops, tablets and gaming consoles for non-educational purposes rather than reading.

“Their essays lack imagination and the proper grammar which can only be acquired through reading.

“In addition, text messaging is to blame for most spelling errors,” one of the teachers said.

“When I started teaching, 18 years ago, the problem already existed but was not as alarming as it is today,” another remarked.

A colleague of theirs said students were unable to appreciate the importance of English and the impact that this would have on the most fundamental choices they would face further on in their lives.