Students who were to sit for MATSEC examinations on March 25 and 26 will be given new dates following the announcement that the election will be held on that weekend.

Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) students were meant to sit for their English and French oral exams on March 25 and English listening comprehension exam on March 26 – election day.

“MATSEC has started making arrangements to shift the exams that fall on Friday 25 and Saturday 26 and the new dates will be communicated in due course,” a University of Malta spokesperson told Times of Malta, adding the examinations are likely to be held end of April.

It decided to also re-schedule Friday’s examinations due to the fact some government schools used as exam venues may also be used as polling booths.

This is not the first time the MATSEC examination timetable has been revised this year; with Pope Francis’s visit also clashing with exam dates.

The pope will be in Malta on April 2 and 3.

To avoid any difficulties for students getting to and from their exams on April 2, the University of Malta rescheduled three examinations which will now be held on April 7.

The rescheduled examinations are intermediate matriculation Italian oral, SEC Italian listening comprehension and SEC French listening comprehension.

Despite no graduation ceremonies actually clashing with the general election, the university has decided to shift two post-graduation ceremonies originally planned to be held on Monday, March 28, to Friday, April 1.

Due to previous graduations being cancelled because of COVID-19, the graduation ceremonies for 2020 and 2021 are scheduled to take place in March and April.

“Post-graduation ceremonies are all held in Valletta and, probably on the day (28), there will be the swearing in  of a new cabinet and celebrations in the capital,” the spokesperson explained.