Over 54,000 children will today head back to school after the summer holidays, curious to find out in which class they have been placed and who their teachers will be during the scholastic year ahead.
School minivans will re-appear in the morning traffic as children of all ages start their annual routine of lessons and homework.
This promises to be a landmark year in the history of state schools as the new education reform kicks in and teachers will benefit from better allowances and work conditions.
As from this year, primary school students in state schools need not dread the stressful secondary school entrance exams as the education reform aims for an inclusive system based on each student’s level of attainment in individual subjects.
Come exam time, in May 2011, the five common entrance and Junior Lyceum exams – Maltese, English, maths, social studies and religion – will be replaced by three: English, Maltese and maths.
Rather than being pigeonholed according to their overall grade, as was done through the old streaming system, students will be grouped according to their strengths and weaknesses in different subjects, creating mixed-abilities classrooms as from next scholastic year.
“Primary school students, especially those in year five, do not have to worry about Junior Lyceum or common entrance exams anymore, whereas secondary students have new laboratories with new equipment and other facilities to look forward to,” Education Minister Dolores Cristina said.
She wished all the students a wonderful year and said those returning to state schools would find them in much better condition than they were last year after embellishment works were undertaken over the summer.
This year the government opened two new boys’ secondary schools, one in Mosta and the other in Gozo, and carried out maintenance works in 53 schools.
Mrs Cristina said teachers were eagerly awaiting the return to their classrooms after a much-needed summer recess.
This year, she added, they had an added incentive as they would have better working conditions under the new collective agreement.
The agreement, the lack of which had provoked industrial action and a one-day strike in state schools, was finally sealed in August with the signatures of government representatives and members of the Malta Union of Teachers.
Through it, teachers will benefit from increased allowances and other improved conditions that include the introduction of health and safety representatives in colleges and more focus on the professional development of teachers.