Updated: Bartolo accuses Government of persisting with interpreting exam results “dishonestly”

In a ministry statement issued on Friday afternoon, the Education Ministry claimed that 76.7% of all candidates who sat for the AM examinations obtained a “useful” result, without specifying whether there had been a pass or not.

The Ministry explained how in order for students to be admitted to University, all the different grades obtained in different exams were added together to establish whether a student had qualified for admission to University or not.

In the intermediate level, 10,289 exams in 29 different subjects ranging from languages to mathematics, sciences, economy, IT and arts were conducted.

The most popular subject in the intermediate level, obviously was Systems of Knowledge, which is compulsory for all students to enter University, in which 81.9% of all students had passed. However, only 52% of candidates obtained a grade between A and C.

There were 1,624 English exams in which 71.5% had passed. However, only 42.7% of candidates obtained a grade between A and C.

According to the Education Ministry, other popular subjects in this level were Physics, where 53.2% of candidates obtained a grade between A and C, Philosophy with 51.7%, Maltese with 49.7%, Italian with 60.4%, Accounts with 51%, Marketing with 59.5%, Biology with 56.5%, Environmental Sciences with 43.7%, Religion with 47% and IT with 68.2%.

In the Advanced Matriculation level, a total of 6,473 in 29 subjects were conducted.  According to the Education Ministry, the best results were obtained in Maltese with 66.2% of candidates obtaining grades between A and C, French with 50%, Italian with 50.8%, Economics with 55.2%, Marketing with 59.2%, Geography with 60.7%, IT 61%, Home Economics 61%.

However, the worst results were obtained in English with only 38.4% obtained an A to C grade, while in Mathematics, 37.9% obtained such a grade.

Education Minister Dolores Cristina congratulated those students who obtained a positive result while wishing the best of luck to all those students who were going to sit for a resit to do their utmost to obtain a positive result as well.

Bartolo accuses Government of persisting with interpreting exam results “dishonestly”

On his part, Evarist Bartolo, Labour’s main spokesperson for Education, in a statement issued shortly after the Education Ministry was issued, accused the Education Ministry of continuing to interpret the SEC results “in the most dishonest way” by focusing only on the best students while at the same time, many students were falling behind and getting out of the secondary education system without a strong preparation.

Bartolo insisted how it was “worrying” that half of the students had so much a low expectation of how they were going to fare in the SEC exams that they chose to sit for Paper B.

It was also worrying, he added, that a large number of students “did not even present themselves” for the SEC exams.

The Labour’s main spokesperson for Education insisted that to analyse how the education system was performing one needed to consider the whole picture, not only those who performed well but also those who fare badly and those who do not even present themselves for the exam.

Bartolo explained that if one took the whole picture, one would find that only half out of the 5,261 students who had ended their secondary education passed from Maltese, English, Physics and Mathematics from grades 1 to 5 which enabled them to continue their post-secondary education.

Out of all the students in the last year of secondary education, only 21% obtained a pass mark from Computer Studies, only 18% obtained a pass mark in Biology and only 12% obtained a pass mark in Chemistry.

“In a world where economic and social development depended so much on the scientific and technological sectors, it was very worrying that there were only a few students who were studying these subjects and study them successfully,” Bartolo insisted.

The Labour’s main spokesperson for Education explained how students who obtained grades 6 and 7 in SEC could continue in “foundation courses.

“However experience shows us that when students arrived weak from the secondary, they find it very difficult to continue studying and therefore there too many students who start a post-secondary course and lose heart and stop,” Bartolo lamented.