Any new exams for Maltese as a foreign language should be kept distinct from the MATSEC system and not serve as an alternative to Ordinary Level exams taken by students going through compulsory education, Maltese language academics have said.

In a statement issued on Monday, a group of seven organisations including the the Akkademja tal-Malti and the University’s Department of Maltese pushed back against government efforts to introduce a new MQF level 3 examination for Maltese as a foreign language.

“We believe that Maltese citizens should not take MATSEC examinations in Maltese (or in English, for that matter) as foreign or even a second language,” the groups said. “For students who go through the obligatory educational system, certification in Maltese (and English) for foreigners (as well as Maltese for specific purposes, so-called ‘Applied Maltese’) should not replace certification in the essential language competencies in Maltese leading to the existing Ordinary Level Maltese.”

The signatories said that while foreigners should be given every opportunity to learn Maltese, their certification should be based on a system that was separate from MATSEC, the board which administers local examinations – much like English as a Foreign Language (EFL) certification.

“Of course, foreign learners of Maltese who advance in their studies should be given the opportunity to follow a syllabus that leads to the SEC examination,” they added.

Signatories remained distinctly unimpressed with the Education Ministry’s pledges, noting that the ministry had flip-flopped on eligibility questions “at least three times” and asking a series of direct questions about what authorities meant when they referred to “foreigners”.

They asked whether Maltese who obtained citizenship, those with one foreign parent or guardian or those born to foreign parents but who were raised within Malta’s education system would be considered “foreigners”.

Similarly, the groups asked logistical questions about the amount of time that would be dedicated to teaching Maltese as a Foreign Language, how schools with few foreign students would offer the subject and how educators would be expected to handle students with varying levels of language competency.

The groups asked what kind of consultation the ministry had undertaken with stakeholders before announcing its plans, and expressed concern that the minister’s permanent secretary appeared to have brushed off calls for further dialogue.

Who signed the statement?

Akkademja tal-Malti
The Department of Maltese, University of Malta
The Department of Maltese, Junior College (UM)
L-Għaqda tal-Malti – Università
Għaqda tal-Qarrejja tal-Provi tal-Malti
Maltese Poets’ Society
Institute of Linguistics and Language Technology, University of Malta

10 questions signatories want answered

1.  What about persons who have obtained Maltese citizenship? Are they ‘foreigners’?

2. What about children who have one foreign parent or guardian, many of whom know Maltese and use it in everyday life? Which syllabus will they follow?

3. What about children who were born in Malta and have been in the Maltese educational system from the early years of schooling, but whose parents or custodians are foreigners? Children who have been in Malta for a long time surely should be given the opportunity to follow the syllabus in Ordinary Level Maltese.

4. As from what age will Maltese as Foreign Language be offered? How many hours a week will be dedicated to it? What training and resources will teachers who teach this subject be given?

5. How will the different levels of language competence of foreign students be dealt with in different classes rather than being placed in the same group or class?

6. What will happen when foreign students join halfway through primary or secondary school, or even halfway through the scholastic year?

7. What will happen in the case of schools in which the number of foreign students is small? Who will teach them?

8. How can we be assured that subject areas that are taught in Maltese, such as social studies, geography, history and, as is being proposed, mathematics, will continue to be taught and assessed in Maltese, especially if the largest number of students in a class are Maltese.

9. Who will decide on all of these matters, and how will the decisions taken be applied consistently to cover the complex and varied school contexts?

10. How will school authorities make sure that decisions are not taken on a case by case basis, to the extent that ‘exceptions’ might be used to lower standards?