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Michaela Muscat
The number of unprecedented failures and the general abysmal performance in ‘A’ Level examinations has been the cause of much consternation among distraught parents and students.
The English ‘A’ level grades were particularly alarming with 34 per cent failure rate and 47 per cent obtaining a pass mark that is less than a C grade, which is a requirement for a great number of courses at the University of Malta.
This should be the cause of apprehension amongst the cabinet members considering how the government dedicated a whole section to “The spoken and written English” in the 2006-2010 pre-budget document.
The unexplainable results have led the lecturers and students to make unfounded claims about an unofficial numerus clausus. No explanation was forthcoming from the Minister of Education regarding the cause of the high failure rates and about plans to remedy the situation.
According to the ministry’s spokesperson, the issue does not fall strictly under the ministry’s dominion, referring this newspaper to the MATSEC examination board.
Carmelo Abela, Labour’s spokesperson for education, said that he received a good number of phone calls from preoccupied parents. “They all questioned how their children failed or were awarded low grades when they had performed brilliantly during the two years spent at sixth form.” Abela was also perturbed about the impact these results would have on students who obtained the Matsec certificate but not the adequate grades for the course requirements.
“My personal impression is that the examiners may have operated with a deconstructive attitude. The English examination does have a pronounced subjective element, after all,” Charles Caruana Carabez, head of the department of English at the Junior College Sixth Form, said.
Dr Mary Darmanin, a sociologist of education at the University of Malta, endorsed this explanation. “With subjects such as Maths, where there is very little scope for subjective interpretation of what a ‘good’ performance is, we find consistency over the two years.”
Darmanin is clearly interested in the glaring shifts in English results, stating that it would be imprudent to try and interpret trends in performance at MATSEC on the basis of the results of two consecutive years, without studying all the factors in depth.
Having said that she finds it “suspect that in some subjects there is such a change in the percentage of students obtaining a grade in the different grades.”
Prof. Frank Ventura, chairman of the MATSEC board asserted that “when compared to the 2004 group this year’s students were ill-prepared.”
But the students who spent stressful months studying for their examinations and their lecturers beg to differ. Darmanin disregards this theory as an urban myth, saying that the explanation lies elsewhere. Students sitting for Information Technology, possibly taught by newly trained and re-trained lecturers, showed a remarkable improvement, where 63 per cent obtained a C grade or higher. IT had one of the lowest failure rates.
The parties involved are hopeful that the MATSEC board and examiners will give a reasonable justification for these results. MATSEC informed this newspaper that the report is usually issued around December. The students sitting for the next round of exams and their lecturers would do well to study this report and learn from their predecessor’s mistakes.
michaelam@newsworksltd.com
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