Minister: ‘foreign language’ Maltese open to students with non-Maltese parents

The education ministry will be preparing a proposal for public consultation, to allow students to take an ‘alternative’ Maltese O-level exam for entry to the University of Malta and MCAST.

The ministry is proposing both an examination to teach Maltese “as a foreign language”, but also an “Applied Maltese” course for entry into MCAST.

This newspaper understands that students seeking entry to the University of Malta, which requires possessing an O-level in Maltese, could be allowed to learn Maltese as a foreign language instead.

The option of “Applied Maltese” is for those seeking instruction in a course at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology where job prospects might not necessarily entail speaking in Maltese, as a ministry official told this newspaper.

There has been confusion about the ministry’s proposal after critics, academics, publishers and writers slammed the move as an effective demotion of the national language.

When asked to explain who will be allowed to sit for this examination, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo told MaltaToday that the option would be open for non-Maltese students or Maltese students with one foreign parent.

It is still unclear how English-speaking students in Malta with no foreign parents will be prevented from sitting for the prospective ‘Maltese as a foreign language’ course.

While the language of instruction at the university is indeed English, the Maltese are predominantly Maltese speakers in everyday affairs and business, politics or the law courts. “A lawyer and architect will study in English, but they will speak in Maltese in the courts or with the builders. The same goes for the Parliament or inside a church,” the head of the Maltese department Dr Bernard Micallef said. “This [course] will institutionalise the deterioration of communicative ability and Maltese literacy.”

Critics say the move is intended to facilitate certain students’ access to their university course by sitting for the simpler versions of the Maltese O-level, in what is a dereliction of the education ministry’s duty to further knowledge of the national language.

Prof. Arnold Cassola, a researcher in Maltese linguistic history, attacked the “demotion” in a post on social media. “Imagine the Italians sitting for Italian ‘as a foreign language’, the French for French ‘as a foreign language’. As usual, for [Joseph] Muscat and his cronies, all that counts are numbers… and money generated. It seems that, as from now onwards, Dun Karm will be speaking to his canary in Maltese... as a foreign language!”

The head of the University of Malta’s department of Maltese, Bernard Micallef, was equally concerned, dubbing it a ‘new language question’.

“It is positive that foreigners living in Malta will have the opportunity to learn Maltese, but it raises a number of questions if this same subject will be offered to Maltese students,” he said.

The novelist Guze Stagno was quick to point out the obvious, for the predominance of spoken English in Malta is confined to the Anglophone middle-classes. “It’s not a question of ability. Children of ordinary ability should have no problem picking up two or more languages, and speak them well. This is classism. We’re going back to the times when Maltese was considered ‘the language of the kitchen’.”

The online debate has been playing out on social media with the publisher Chris Gruppetta saying this latest move was “exaggerated”. After his comment was posted, Gruppetta said he had received at least 50 separate emails and messages on the issue by people deriding the Maltese language.

On Facebook he posted that he had received ‘hate’ messages such as “Maltese deserves to die” and “Maltese can’t be extinguished soon enough”.