Winston Churchill did not ring a bell for many history students doing their SEC exam while others struggled to say on which day Malta became a republic.
These and other howlers were highlighted in the examiners’ report about students’ performance in last May’s Secondary Education Certificate examination.
In total, 205 students applied for the exam and a narrow majority (54 per cent) managed a pass mark.
But another third did so badly that their grade could not be classified, while 10 applicants did not even bother to turn up for the exam.
A number of students failed to grasp the meaning of the questions set
Apart from flagging some serious gaps in the students’ knowledge of Maltese and European history, examiners lamented candidates’ lack of English vocabulary. The report says that such shortcomings were evident from the fact that a number of students failed to grasp the meaning of the questions set.
Others lacked important basic skills when it came to presentation and language and struggled to express themselves in both Maltese and English.
Such deficiencies, especially in English, surface year in year out across the board, with examiners of various subjects warning about this major weakness among Maltese students.
As in other SEC subjects, all applicants had to sit for Paper I but then had to choose between the more demanding Paper IIA to be eligible to obtain between Grade 1 (highest) and Grade 4, or Paper IIB where Grade 4 is the highest possible certification. Students needing to enter post-secondary institutions need at least Grade 5.
Three quarters of the applicants opted for Paper IIA but nearly a third of them failed, whereas only six students obtained the highest mark, Grade 1.
Examiners pointed out that the performance of candidates in Paper IIB was characterised by short answers, a lot of vagueness and poor use of English and Maltese.
History ‘revised’
In the Maltese history section of the exam, the 17th century Wignacourt Aqueduct was cited by many as a major project undertaken during British colonial rule, even though this structure was built nearly 200 years before the British set foot on Malta.
Some candidates confused Malta’s fourth Prime Minister Sir Gerald Strickland with Governor Thomas Maitland who ruled a century before, and even with former Prime Minister Dom Mintoff.
Sir Gerald Strickland was simply described by many as a Protestant who was all out to eradicate Catholicism in Malta.
The circumstances in the early 1960s which paved the way for Malta’s demand for independence turned out to be a difficult nut to crack for most candidates.
Though many gave an acceptable definition of what constitutes a sovereign State, many confused it with colonial rule. Few candidates were able to explain that the Commonwealth is an intergovernmental organisation of the former British Empire under the leadership of the UK.
The date of December 13, 1974, eluded many students and most of them were only able to indicate that Malta gained republic status in that year but mixed up the date with other national holidays.
As for European history, many candidates were unsure whether Harry Truman was actually an American president, saying he was either the leader of the USA or some other state including Poland.
Many did not know who was Winston Churchill, Britain’s prime minister during World War II.
Many could not explain the division of Europe into two opposing blocks between the democratic west and the communist east, giving a literal explanation of the term ‘iron curtain’.
Only a couple of candidates were able to explain what the Marshall Aid was.