In recent parliamentary sittings a number of MPs tabled parliamentary questions (PQs 34,367, 34,450 and 34,460) about the need to upgrade, extend and maintain the buildings and facilities of the primary schools of Attard, Cospicua and Marsascala. In the coming months Government will embark on a propaganda campaign to promote the various refurbishment/improvement works on school buildings.
This is part of the government's drive to publicise "visible deliverables" to give the impression that it is delivering. One area where Government has no visible deliverable to publicise is its efforts and achievements in literacy and language competence in our primary schools.
The results of the Junior Lyceum entrance examination show us once again the need to put literacy and language competence at the top of our national agenda. A total of 4,547 pupils pupils sat for this exam: 2,549 passed in English while 3,781 passed in Maltese; 232 (5%) obtained grade A in English while 245 (5%) obtained grade A in Maltese. Another 884 (19%) obtained grade B in English and 933 (20.5%) obtained grade B in Maltese. Most of those who managed to pass in these two languages did so by scraping through with grade C: 1,433 (31%) in English and 2,603 (57%) in Maltese.
Only 25% of the pupils who sat for these exams got grades A and B in English and Maltese. In their reports examiners have consistently concluded that in English and Maltese students show poor levels in the basic use of language in its written form: spelling errors, incorrect tense usage, lack of idiom, lack of creativity... it is essential that children are helped to understand the need for extensive reading to enlarge their store of knowledge, as well as to strengthen their ability to use the language, not only within the classroom and the school, but also out of it.
Not on the government's agenda
The European Report on the Quality of School Education (May 2000) recommends that EU member states give standards in education their highest political priority. "High levels of knowledge, competences and skills are considered to be the very basic conditions for active citizenship, employment and social cohesion."
The Nationalist Party in government does not share these concerns. Government talks abstractly and vaguely about the need to provide high-quality education but then fails to follow through concretely how this is to happen in every school in Malta and Gozo.
Government's attitude is that such areas as standards in education, students' performance and school effectiveness are technical details and the responsibility of the Education Division, heads of schools and teachers. This mistaken attitude has serious implications and explains why crucial issues like literacy and language competence have not been on the government's agenda in the last four years.
Language competence is one of the 16 indicators developed by the EU Working Committee on Quality Indicators to evaluate schools. The Working Committee discusses several key policy issues about language education, the need to improve teacher competency and to create the conditions to make language learning as efficient as possible in schools.
Despite its obsession with the EU, government failed to use the European Year of Languages in 2001 to push language education to the top of the agenda. Students who fail to attain language competence tend to fail in all the other areas of school education.
Failure to take initiatives
In their report for 2000 the SEC examiners expressed alarm at the students' poor level of Maltese. The examiners referred to the disastrous grammar, spelling, punctuation, syntax, sentence and paragraph structure shown by students. They recommended that a hard look be given at how Maltese is being taught in secondary schools.
The incompetence shown by many students in the use of the Maltese language has wide and serious implications. A report (Foreign Language Teaching in Schools in Europe - 2001) drawn up for the European Commission rightly concludes that "schooling and socialisation are easier if children relate easily to their ethnic and cultural identity - of which the native language is an integral part".
Focussing on the students' lack of originality and dearth of ideas, SEC examiners have stressed the need for an ongoing effort to spread the culture of reading and writing among children and teenagers. Similar comments recur in the reports compiled by examiners on the performance of students sitting for the SEC exams in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Latin.
In their report for 2000 the SEC examiners in English Language noted that "a substantial number of candidates have a poor command of written English in spite of the fact that they have spent so many years attempting to master this skill".
The examiners in French remarked that "candidates are having problems when it comes to expressing themselves in writing... The major pitfalls in both 2A and 2B were grammar, syntax, vocabulary and construction. A number of students found it quite difficult to write a simple sentence correctly." They also noted that their answers "were presented as a whole chunk without any paragraphing whatsoever".
Listing failures shown by students when answering the Italian exam paper of the previous year the examiners noted: "Quite a number of students do not seem to have heard of the word 'paragraphs'." "Punctuation, many seem to think, is a thing of the past." "The grammar mistakes were legion." They also referred to poor spelling, weak syntax and disorganised sentences. The examiners lament that "most of these failings have been pointed out in practically every year's examiners' report. And yet one can hardly note any improvement."
The Labour Party in government will give the highest political priority to language education. The improvement of language teaching in our primary and secondary schools should enable more students to become competent in Maltese, English and at least one other foreign language.