New revision classes introduced last year have resulted in a higher percentage of students passing resits, according to numbers released by the Education Ministry this morning.

The free SEC Revision Classes are part of an initiative by the Youth Guarantee which provides free classes during summer in preparation for the September resit session.

The program, which involves an intensive academic programme over a five-week period, was aimed at students who were either absent for the May session or whose grades in Maltese, Mathematics, English and Physics were below Grade 5.

1,085 students applied for revision classes, a considerable number of them for more than one class.

The largest improvement was for mathematics, which went from 19 per cent pass rate for the September resit last year to 59.4 per cent this year. All other subjects also had an increased pass rate: from 16.6 per to 19.6 per cent for English, from 35.4 per cent to 43.2 percent for Maltese and from 26.7 to 51.7 per cent for Physics.

Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said that the classes proved to be a resounding success and that students were motivated to achieve the grades they needed despite the intensity of the programs.

He noted that the attendance rate this year had improved, with over 70 per cent of the students regularly attending the classes.

Parliamentary Secretary Ian Borg spoke about the benefits of the Youth Guarantee and noted that such revision classes were contributing to this success.