The ongoing educational reform could have “disastrous consequences” because it had not been well thought-out, according to Labour Party education spokesman Evarist Bartolo.
Mr Bartolo was speaking at a press conference yesterday, two weeks after Education Minister Dolores Cristina announced the replacement of the Junior Lyceum entrance exams with benchmark tests at the end of Year Six and the replacement of streaming with the setting system.
“Change is not only desirable, it is necessary,” the former education minister said, before listing what he deemed as mistakes being made in the reform.
While he welcomed the introduction of the benchmark tests, which he said were a step in the right direction, Mr Bartolo said there was not enough preparation for teachers, students and parents for what was a radical change in the way students were taught and assessed.
“Who came up with the idea to inform parents in the middle of the scholastic year and a fortnight before the half-yearly exams? This should have happened before the scholastic year started,” Mr Bartolo said.
Similarly, teachers and heads at State schools are not well-prepared to change the way they taught, and heads of schools are rushing frantically to change the Form 1 syllabuses without knowing if they were in line with the revised national minimum curriculum.
This curriculum was meant to be released by November 2009 but is yet to see the light of day, a situation which the Labour spokesman said was “chaotic”.
Another pressing issue, Mr Bartolo said, was that teachers in State secondary schools did not have enough training to be able to handle mixed-ability classrooms.
“The 20 hours of training a year teachers have in their collective agreement will not be enough to prepare them for this change,” Mr Bartolo said. Asked whether he had any proposals on the way forward, Mr Bartolo said all he could suggest now was for the sector to take stock of the situation, recognise the pitfalls and move on.
“If children are faced with teachers who don’t feel they own the changes, all this could fail miserably,” he warned.
In a statement the education ministry said the meetings being held ahead of the change were seeing “strong participation” and that teachers in primary schools were being given the resources they needed for the change, which were carried out in the past two years.