Banding is a well known form of streaming procedure on the basis on standardised results in Maltese, English and mathematics, members of the Faculty of Education said in an open letter to Education Minister Evarist Bartolo.

In their letter they said they were “perplexed and perturbed” with the policy reversals advocated in a Department of Curriculum Management circular which required all state primary schools to group pupils by month of birth from kindergarten 1 to Year 4.

It also required schools to classify and allocate to classes, pupils in Years 5 and 6 according to banding, a less differentiated form of streaming.

They said that in a selective system, the younger children would not have the opportunity to benefit from peer learning with slightly older peers, born in the same year.

Moreover, streaming had been abolished three years ago because of repeated and reliable studies about the negative effects of streaming and it was too early to determine whether the change had been beneficial.

Their letter in full may be read in the pdf link below.