Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1050749
6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 11 NOVEMBER 2018 NEWS Iden ty Malta Agency, e-ID Cards Unit, would like to inform the public that our offices at the Electoral Office St Francis Square, Victoria Gozo will be closed on the following days: Saturday 17 th November 2018 Saturday 1 st December 2018 The Agency apologizes for any inconvenience. IMPORTANT NOTICE Percentage given denotes number of students sitting for each exam from the total number of candidates registering for a SEC exam 2008 2012 2018 % % % Italian 32.7 27.8 29.6 French 24.8 21 17.9 German 7.2 5.2 9.3 Spanish 4.2 3.5 5.7 Arabic 0.1 0.4 1.1 Russian 0.2 0.2 0.6 JAMES DEBONO TEENAGERS are more likely to sit for 'Ordinary' level ex- ams in German and Spanish than they were 10 years ago, but are less likely to opt for French, a language that fell from being selected by 25% of all SEC candidates in 2008, to 18% in 2018. Statistics from Matsec re- ports have shown how the language once considered to be part-and-parcel of Maltese 15-year-olds foreign linguistic choices – the other being Ital- ian – has given way to other European languages. Over the past decade the per- centage of candidates sitting for Italian remained stable af- ter a sharp drop between 2003 and 2008, when the percent- age of candidates sitting for the exam dropped from 39% to 33%. An examiners' report pub- lished in 2008 already noted the "steady decrease in num- bers and percentages [which] French in gentle decline as German grows in popularity at 'O' levels must be tackled at all levels by whoever is involved in the teaching of the Italian lan- guage in Malta." This decline mirrored the lower exposure to Italian TV as a new generation of stu- dents exposed to cable and satellite TV in the mid-1990s grew up on a diet of American cartoons and shows, rather than the standard fare up on offer till then: seven Italian television stations and the na- tional broadcaster TVM. By 2012, the number of can- didates taking Italian reached an all-time low of 28%. But since then the number has stabilised around the 29% mark. On the other hand, the de- cline in the number of can- didates sitting for French – a language which never enjoyed the cultural exposure Italian had in Malta – has been more pronounced in the past ten years, dropping from 25% in 2008 to 21% in 2012, and to 18% in 2018. In contrast comes the rise in the percentage of candidates sitting for the German exam, which fell gently from 7% in 2008 to 5% in 2012 and now climbed to 9% in 2018. In 2017, 63% of the candidates tak- ing French at 'O' level were girls. Similar percent- ages were evident for Spanish (60%), Italian (55%), and Ger- man (51%). 65% of those sitting for the French exam hailed from church schools and inde- pendent schools, in contrast to Italian, where 51% hailed from these non-state schools. Although Malta is increas- ingly cosmopolitan and ex- posed to foreign trade and investment, students remain conservative in their lan- guage choices with Italian and French remaining the top two choices. The number of students sitting for Arabic, a com- pulsory subject before 1987, has remained very low even if numbers have marginally increased in the past decade from just 11 students in 2008 to 57 students in 2018. The increase in students sitting for the exam can be attribut- ed to the increase of students hailing from the Middle East and North Africa. In fact, an examiners' report issued last year notes that "the majority of candidates were either of Arab origin or native speakers of Arabic". Only 30 students sat for their exam in Russian in 2018, up from 13 ten years ago. And in 2017, only 12.8% sat for two other languages apart from English and Maltese and most of these opted for Italian and French. 62% sat for one foreign language while less than 1% (7 students) had sat for exams in three languages. years, dropping from 25% in 2008 to 21% in 2012, and to In contrast comes the rise in the percentage of candidates sitting for the German exam, which fell gently from 7% in 2008 to 5% in 2012 and now climbed to 9% in In 2017, 63% of the candidates tak- ing French at 'O' level were girls. Similar percent- ages were evident for Spanish (60%), Italian (55%), and Ger- 65% of those sitting for the French exam hailed from church schools and inde- pendent schools, in contrast to Italian, where 51% hailed from these non-state schools. Although Malta is increas- for exams in three languages.