Updated at 6pm: Adds ministry statement
The creation of three Matsec exams for Maltese will result in great confusion among schools and students, a number of entities committed to the development of the Maltese language said.
They said in a statement that if the Education Ministry truly wanted to help more students pass their exams, it needed to strengthen the teaching of Maltese and invest in more resources, rather than splinter the current SEC course and wreak havoc.
The ministry is proposing three Matsec exams for Maltese - ordinary, vocational and for foreigners.
“The ministry must publicly spell out in what ways the exam in ‘vocational’ Maltese will be different from the current exam. Which are the skills that will no longer be acquired by the students taking this course? Which basic components of language learning will the ministry remove from the education of secondary students? Which ‘vocation’ (or occupation) will it cater for? For all possible ‘vocations’?”
The entities noted that Maltese currently being taught in secondary years, which the ministry had dubbed as “only academic”, was the most basic level of Maltese in compulsory secondary education.
READ: Alternative Maltese language exam for vocational students planned
It consisted of the common element of Maltese grammar and orthography, reading, writing, and literature.
In the national curriculum, SEC certification in Maltese was a marker of standard knowledge of the Maltese language, and served as the basic instruction for students choosing different routes in employment and post-secondary education.
As from May 2022, there was to be a new version of the Maltese SEC exam, consisting of two papers that catered for different levels, and students would be able to choose the paper that allowed them to earn the certification that reflected their skills.
“Why is there need for the creation of a different exam supposedly ‘more relevant’ to students who have chosen a ‘vocational route’ in secondary school?”
It is clear that for the ministry, 'vocational Maltese' and SEC Maltese were of a different level."
The entities said the ministry was creating a system of “different routes” to give the impression that the only difference between Maltese as it was currently being taught and “vocational Maltese” was in the teaching methods adopted and that these required different exams but at the same qualification level.
“We believe that this is just a way of lowering the level of Maltese while giving the same certification. The impoverishment of the national language will be institutionalised under the guise of different syllabi, which will in actual fact gradually erode the fundamental contents of Maltese," they said.
Given that “vocational Maltese” would be linked to specific occupations from as early as the final three years of secondary school, students who opted for an impoverished knowledge of Maltese would be at a disadvantage for the rest of their lives.
The two exams, SEC and “vocational”, would segregate students who, at such an early phase of their lives, would be asked to opt for a very specific career-oriented route, which did not allow for the flexibility they would require later on in life.
Rather than create a system that hid the problem of students who were not sitting for their exams at the end of their compulsory education by awarding equal certification for different levels of competence, the minister should address this issue more seriously.
“We believe that there should be different teaching methods that reached all students but that these should all prepare them for the SEC exam which already catered for two different levels,” the entities said.
The statement was signed by the Akkademja tal-Malti, the departments of Maltese at the University and the Junior College, the Għaqda tal-Malti, the Għaqda tal-Qarrejja tal-Provi tal-Malti, the Maltese Poets’ Society and the Institute of Linguistics and Language Technology.
Ministry's reply
In a reply, the ministry said its proposals were drawn up for the benefit of children and young people who were allowed to fall behind during the years.
The teaching of Maltese was being strengthened for more students to acquire the necessary abilities in the good use of the language. Those who were currently doing well and obtaining the necessary certifications would not see any changes.
But the ministry wanted more students to do well. And there were around 39 per cent of 15-year-old students who would still acquire abilities in Maltese if they had the right alternatives.
So the ministry was saying suitable quality programmes would be offered that were not a one size fits all and that would be based on recommendations based on educational research.
The ministry wanted to see more relevant, actual, fresh and live Maltese for all students in Malta. The proposal for a programme of applied Maltese was recommended to Malta by experts appointed by the Council of Europe to research the situation of languages in Malta.
Vocational Maltese, the ministry said, had been used successfully at Mcast for years and through it thousands of students had reached MQF3 qualifications and were able to find work or continue studying at post-secondary and even tertiary level.
In the coming weeks, the ministry would be giving more information of the basis of applied Maltese. This should put everyone’s mind at rest that Maltese SEC and applied Maltese would be complementary and serve to strengthen the teaching of Maltese in Malta, the ministry said.