Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/248536
3 News maltatoday, SUNDAY, 26 JANUARY 2014 Bartolo: 'Pembroke co-ed did not bring the world crashing down' New ethics classes will develop 'community of inquiry' THERE are 1,411 students of all Maltese students' dismal performance in literacy, sciences remain of major concern for education minister Co-ed to improve students' talent pool mdalli@mediatoday.com.mt PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD government will be submitting its plans on the Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan. "Unlike other countries that had to submit their plans in December 2013 due to their high youth unemployment rate, Malta's relatively low youth unemployment rate meant that its deadline is in Spring 2014," Bartolo said. He said the plans being submitted are for the Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan, should not to be confused with the Youth Employment Initiative. The Youth Employment Initiative is aimed at EU members whose unemployment rate is above 25%, and with the local rate being considerably lower than that, Malta is ineligible for this initiative. Bartolo said the implementation of co-education in state schools would improve the talent pool among students. Government's decision to roll out co-ed in all state secondary schools as from the next scholastic year was met with concern by the Malta Union of Teachers, who pulled out of the national co-ed committee when it claimed that the government had taken a rushed decision. The MUT also insisted that the government had not evaluated the implementation of co-ed at Pembroke state school, considered to be the co-ed pilot project. "Pembroke was never a pilot project. We don't experiment with children," Bartolo claimed. "The best talent pool of students in state schools is among the female students. When students move to Church or independent secondary schools, the talent pool of students in secondary state schools receives a blow. Co-ed will help balance out this issue." Bartolo added that a co-ed system will help improve boys' educative performance without hindering girls' performance. The full implementation of the coed system will take six years, Bartolo said, refuting accusations of rushing through the reform. "It is a pity that MUT pulled out of the committee… we wanted MUT to be side-by-side on this issue in the deployment of teachers. Talks are still being held with MUT and even though they are no longer members of the committee their advice is still being sought," he said. Asked what the education directorate has learnt from the Pembroke experience, Bartolo said: "the world did not come crashing down", adding somewhat jokingly that no female 11-year-old students had been impregnated since then. "The students themselves cannot understand why we keep asking them how they are doing, since they have always been in a co-ed class." MIRIAM DALLI 55% of 'O'-level students in Fifth Form do not sit for their exams or fail to obtain the bare minimum required to continue with their studies, while 353 students do not even bother applying to sit for secondary education certificate (SEC) exams. National figures show that 40% of female students obtain the required six SEC subjects to proceed to Sixth Form while only 14% of the male students do so. On average, male students are lagging behind female students by 20 points in their exam results. For years, Malta has experienced a high rate of early school leavers – students who finish obligatory schooling without the necessary basic skills – when compared with other countries. Studies such as PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) and TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies) published in March 2013 show Maltese students performing poorly in mathematics, science, languages and literacy. The studies, never published before, were supported by separate studies carried out by Education Directorate that revealed "alarming results" based on schoolby-school evaluation, according to education minister Evarist Bartolo. These school-by-school evaluations will not be published in order to avoid the social stigma that may arise. Bartolo revealed this distressing but honest picture of the Maltese education system at a press conference looking back at the ministry's work in the past 10 months. He said reforms on number of projects and initiatives to address and improve the educational sector were aimed at helping students falling behind in their studies or ensuring that older students get training and employment opportunities. One example was the alternative learning programmes that provide a learning opportunity to students Evarist Bartolo who did not even apply to sit for exams. 353 such students were identified and approached to take part in the programme, carried out in conjunction with MCAST, Youth.inc, Agenzija Zghazagh, ETC and the private sector. But 150 of these students refused to take part. Bartolo said mixed-ability teaching remained a priority. "There are increased requests for the education policy to move towards addressing individual learning needs of students and the Ministry will be working towards this goal," he said. "This type of educational experience suits a considerable number of students very well, and has shown it is an equal alternative to other educational experiences," Bartolo said. The minister reassured that the ages who do not sit for religion classes and instead spend an hour assembled elsewhere or out in the school corridor. As from the next scholastic year, secondary state schools will start offering ethics education as an alternative subject to religion. Professor Kenneth Wain, who piloted the introduction of ethics education, said the purpose was to develop a mature individual moral outlook and sensibility based on values that are uncontroversial in principle and for students to learn how to make mature and informed moral judgments based on these values. "Ethics is about moral behaviour, with values and character Kenneth Wain qualities. The aim is to educate pupils into understanding the nature of moral language, making sound and reflective moral judgement, living an ethical lifestyle," he said. Addressing a seminar on ethics education, Wain said ethics was not a code of conduct or instruction on how to live but a way of developing a mature individual moral outlook. "Pupils will be taught to negotiate with others, to argue for their views in a manner that respects difference, to respect the integrity of those who think differently," he said. The class itself, he said, should be a community of democratic inquiry where students feel that they can speak comfortably and safely. The aim is to present students with 'text' – literature, a video or a picture – and get the students to think and discuss. The programme will be designed in stages and tailored to correspond with the cognitive emotional and social growth of the child into an adolescent: five to seven, eight to ten, Form 1 to Form 3 and Form 4 to Form 5. Different learning methods and resources corresponding with the different stages will be employed. 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