Updated at 3pm with UPE statement

Proposed changes to the way students are assessed at the end of their primary education are "rushed" and being implemented without "consideration, direction and with inconsistency", the teachers' union has charged.

In a statement on Friday morning - a day after the government announced plans to phase out the current benchmark system - the Malta Union of Teachers said that the Education Ministry had announced another reform to the education system "out of the blue". 

"While the reform was never discussed with the MUT during sectorial agreement talks and therefore it is not included in the agreement, the union observes that there seems to be two different currents within the ministry that are not working together.

"This is because this year, a process to have continuous assessment, apart from exams, was introduced. This is being introduced gradually and will continue year after year so that students in their third year of primary school, who will be in their final year by 2021/2022, will be able to experience this new system, which includes sitting for the so-called benchmark exam," the MUT explained.

The Union for Professional Educators also criticised the way the changes were announced and insisted they had not been informed about them.

In a statement, the UPE expressed shock at the news, which it said, had learned about through media.

It also said it had not seen the 25 proposals mentioned by the minister. This, it said, was a wily strategy by the Education Department to introduce changes which would drastically affect teacher’s load.

Since teachers had not been consulted, it was probable that the change would mean a lot of work and much more stress on educators at primary level, who already had a lot to deal with.

The union said it was convinced that the continuous changes that were taking place would increase the teachers’ load and would not be beneficial to students. It would also discourage young people from taking up teaching at primary level.

Reform to remove exams

Education Minister Evarist Bartolo on Thursday said the education system will shift towards what will be called 'informal college exams' or 'informal national exams' by 2021.

He presented a report with 25 recommendations drawn up by the Benchmark Review Board, set up in 2017 to review the national end-of-primary assessment, more commonly referred to as the benchmark exam.

The reform announced on Thursday would remove the final sixth-year examination in 2021 and would affect a group of students who were not part of the gradual assessment that had been embarked on at primary level.

The MUT, however, is not convinced by the proposal. 

"The MUT insists that the proposals are not a reflection of the teachers' beliefs and they do not conform to the National Curriculum of 2012, which states that exams should be held during the sixth year of primary school," the MUT went on.

It also deemed the move by the ministry "contradictory".

They said education authorities had first insisted students should still sit for their Maths and Maltese exams, despite an industrial dispute affecting the two subjects, only to announce a few days later that it would be removing exams for these two subjects as well as English. 

The MUT also questioned the timing of the reform's launch, saying the report published on Thursday was dated "June 2018". This suggested it had been "sitting on a shelf" for a year, it said.

The union also criticised the decision to unveil the proposals after the school year had ended, saying this "conveniently" meant teachers had fewer opportunities to discuss the proposals.

It also denied ministry claims, made in response to a question by Times of Malta, that it had been consulted about the changes.