The Education Ministry has accused the Labour Party’s spokesman for education of playing with figures to give the wrong impression about the results obtained by students sitting for SEC examinations.

The ministry said that while Mr Bartolo had said that only 44 per cent of candidates passed from Paper A in Maltese, there were actually 2,689 students who sat for Maltese at this level and 2,323 of them (86.4 per cent) obtained a pass mark.

According to Mr Bartolo only 45 per cent of candidates passed from English (Paper A). But the truth was that 2,563 of the 2,896 students who registered for this exam (88.5 per cent) passed.

When it came to mathematics, although only 37 per cent of those sitting for Paper A passed according to Mr Bartolo but 2,040 out of the 2,199 taking this exam (92.8 per cent) actually did.

When it came to computer studies Paper A - 865 of the 941 (91.9 per cent) of those sitting for this exam passed and obtained good grades but according to Mr Bartolo only 57 per cent passed.

When it came to physics, chemistry and biology, the Opposition spokesman compared those sitting for the examination tothe number of Form V students in state, church and private schools, to lower the percentage of those sitting for and passing the examination.

In fact, in his statement, he said that only 49, 16 and 11 per cent of Form V students passed from physics, biology and chemistry Paper A, respectively.

This was when the percentage of those passing from these examinations stood at 89.9 per cent for phsycis, 81.6 per cent for biology and 83.1 per cent for chemistry, the ministry said.