Why we are faring badly in STEM subjects

Whenever our students sit with their peers from other countries in tests of science and maths, they always perform lower than average. I can think of some causes.

At primary level, science should be taught by people who understand the science concepts s/he is imparting and not by the class teacher, especially if the latter does not have an inkling. If students get the wrong concept one has to move heaven and earth to correct the mistake.

Political intervention in the educational system should stop. Politicians only have a short-term vision.

It seemed that physics at SEC level has been watered down. Students do not even need to remember the formulae and, moreover, they do not understand the concepts. The SEC examination does not seem to test comprehension but students can get a pass mark by being coached for the exam.

The fact that, at secondary and sixth form level, students depend heavily on private lessons reveals that the system is not working correctly. Students and their parents give more weight to private lessons because they are paying for them while the school lessons are ‘free’. A system where private tuition has taken the place of the school lessons is a failed system.

The teacher needs to show the beauty and wonder of the subject and its relevance so students get enamoured of it. When a student gets passionate about something, wonders start taking place. Teaching the subject only for the examination has the danger of losing students who would have become stars in the subject because we would be dampening their curiosity and enthusiasm.

One of my best teachers tells me that teachers teach what is in the examination paper. And, so, when the testing mechanism is flawed, it undermines the whole system. Exa­mination papers sometimes fail to make the mark and are defective. They have mistakes, have queer and unrealistic questions and a student can pass if s/he is taught by rote.

And the practical session of the physics Matsec exam (not like this year but when students go in a laboratory to perform experiments) seems to be more of a data analysis exercise than testing whether the students have learned to set up an experiment and conduct it.

We should aim for our students to be critical, logical thinkers. It is something that can be learnt.

Joe Portelli – Nadur

Malta needs ‘Varist’

Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo as he attends a press conference after a meeting with his Russian counterpart in Sochi last month. Photo: Handout/Russian Foreign Ministry/AFP

The news that ‘Varist’, as Evarist Bartolo, our foreign affairs minister, has been fondly known ever since he had decided to join the Labour Party as a youngster, will again be contesting the forthcoming general election must surely have elated not just all those who consider themselves Labourites but also many who hold no definite political affiliation.

The reason for this is that ‘Varist’, besides having a disarming and affable character, is always meticulous with the words he uses when speaking and writing. He is widely recognised as a politician who will call a spade a spade and never attacks personally his political adversaries but their political arguments, at times harshly, especially when they allow their political partisanship to override the interest of our dear country.

Bartolo is also widely considered to have been the best minister for education our country has ever had. So many were surprised when Prime Minister Robert Abela decided to move Bartolo to the ministry for foreign affairs.

Within a very short period of time, Abela’s decision was proven to have been a very wise one! Apart from the COVID-19 pandemic, illegal immigration, tied to the Libyan civil war, was probably Malta’s main problem. Bartolo grabbed this seemingly unsolvable problem by the horns! Things started moving in the right direction and light finally appeared at the end of a long tunnel.

In fact, there is now in Libya a government of national unity while the arrival of illegal immigrants from Libya has been drastically reduced. And the EU seems to have been persuaded to finally walk the talk on the Libyan conflict and illegal immigration. Bartolo has been a protagonist in all of this.

But this is not all. Our indefatigable foreign minister has been visiting various EU and non-EU countries not only to attract foreign investment to Malta but also to repair as much as possible the harm some of our Maltese brethren have caused our country internationally.

This is why I am confident that voters in the districts which Bartolo will be contesting will appreciate all this. After all, it is not just the Labour movement that needs him to continue the good work he is doing but, even more so, our dear country. Malta needs Evarist Bartolo  now more then ever.

Eddy Privitera – Mosta

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