Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1221489
7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 15 MARCH 2020 NEWS JAMES DEBONO STUDENTS attending church schools are the most likely to sit for exams in two or more foreign languages. Statistics published by the University of Malta's MATSEC examinations board show that a fifth of students hailing from church schools sit for two or more exams in contrast to only 6% of students in state schools, and 15% of students in independ- ent schools. 66.6% of all candidates born in 2003 registered for only one for- eign language, other than Mal- tese and English. This marks a further increase over last year when 59% applied for one foreign language. School differences between the different sectors are substantial. Candidates from state schools are the most likely to register for not a single foreign language (27.3%) and the least likely to register for two or more foreign lan- guages (5.8%). Candidates from church schools are the least likely to register for no foreign lan- guage (14.3%) and the most likely to register for two or more foreign languages (19.3%). Among students attending independent schools, 22.3% do not register for any foreign language while 14.6% register for two or more foreign lan- guages. Italian remains by far the most popular option, fol- lowed by French, among these candidates. Italian is the main foreign lan- guage studied in state schools. Students in independent schools are the most likely to choose French, with Italian coming a close second. Students in church schools are the most likely to opt for German, even if Italian and French are the most popular even in this sector. State schools lag in science Differences between school sec- tors are also considerable with regards to science choices. Candidates from state second- ary schools were more than three times as likely as church and in- dependent school candidates not to apply for science subjects (13.3% compared to 3.6% in church schools and 1.8% in inde- pendent schools). Additionally, candidates from state schools are much less like- ly to apply for the three science subjects. Substantial differences also exist between the sexes. While more males opted for Physics as their single science subject, most of the candidates who registered for Biology only were females. Chemistry is rarely taken as one's only science subject. The largest category of candidates opting for two science subjects registered for Biology and Phys- ics, suggesting, again, that most candidates shy away from choos- ing Chemistry. The majority of candidates who studied more than one science subject were females. In 2019 only 14.1% of candidates born in 2003 applied for the three scienc- es (11.5% of boys and 16.7% of girls). Two-thirds of students opt for just one foreign language Students in church schools most likely to opt for two or more foreign languages in SEC exams. Over one- fourth in state schools do not opt for any foreign language Number of languages chosen in each school sector State Church Private 0 27% 1 4 % 22% 1 67% 67% 63% 2+ 6% 19% 15% Number of science subjects chosen in each school sector State Church Private 0 13 4 2 1 60 63 61 2 13 11 14 3 10 17 17 More 4 5 6 intermediary language between two others — ed.] before making use of the product," EC official Mark Vella said. "Maltese is widely spoken amongst families, groups of friends, other social, and even professional contexts. The prob- lems seem to start at the writ- ten-word level. You can still see a cultural resistance to Maltese, even when it comes to admin- istrative or bureaucratic proce- dures." According to Vella, the eTrans- lation product helps to address this confidence gap by trans- lating documents into Maltese quickly – indeed, an ideal tool in the hands of institutions han- dling large volumes of text, like media houses themselves. The programme also provides high security – all data processed by the system stay within the Commission's firewalls and can't be seen by outsiders; it translates from and into any official EU language; and it works best with texts on EU-related matters. Additionally, the machine translation service accepts not just .doc formats but also Excel spreadsheet, Powerpoint pres- entations, html documents, and even PDFs. It can detect the language of text longer than 30 characters, translates several documents in- to several languages in one go, keeps the format of the original document, and offers 552 lan- guage pairs, covering all 24 offi- cial EU languages, Icelandic and Norwegian. Ebba von Fersen Balzan In loving memory of artist Ebba von Fersen Balzan, who passed away aged 50 on the 16, March, 2008. Born in Darmstadt, Germany and who lived in Naxxar, Malta. Her memory lives on in her works and her paintings. Fondly remembered by Saviour Balzan, Antoinette and Ray Balzan, Mariella and Alan Dimech and niece and nephew Matthew and Francesca. EBBA VON FERSEN BALZAN In loving memory of artist Ebba von Fersen Balzan, who passed away aged 50 on 16 March 2008. Born in Darmstadt, Germany, she lived in Naxxar, Malta. Her memory lives on in her works and her paintings. Fondly remembered by Saviour Balzan, Antoinette and Ray Balzan, Mariella and Alan Dimech and niece and nephew Matthew and Francesca.