Education: Authorities urged to review exams and stop streaming

A business breakfast on the Maltese educational system this morning heard repeated calls for a review of the examinations system and the streaming process.

A strong appeal was also made for greater emphasis on lifelong education.

Professor Kenneth Wain, one of the speakers at the event, hosted by the PN in the run-up to the Independence celebrations, said the country was not taking life-long education seriously enough. Malta, he said, urgently needed a strategic national plan for life-long learning.

He also argued strongly against streaming, saying the selection of children at a very young age was immediately instilling in many of them a sense of failure. Such decisions, he said, needed to be delayed as much as possible.

Indeed, the Junior Lyceum and Common Entrance Examinations were not doing the education system any good and needed to be reviewed in the context of the ongoing assessment of children.

MUT president John Bencini said the college system being piloted at Kullegg San Benedittu, where one had children of different levels under one roof, needed to be adequately supported in order to succeed.

He said that the issues of school discipline and the teacher shortage needed to be discussed in detail and addressed, pointing out that wthin a short time, Malta risked having a lack of professional teachers in primary schools.

This morning’s event started with a presentation on the education system by Paul Attard, president of MCAST, who also said that too much importance was being given to exams.

The event was concluded by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, who said that education was the top priority for the government, not least because investment decisions were being taken on the basis of the availability of a skilled and trained workforce. Indeed, decisions in the education sector taken 20 years ago had a bearing on investment decisions today.

Dr Gonzi said today’s generation had a window of opportunity, especially in information technology, which it needed to grasp and exploit.