Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/459448
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 8 FEBRUARY 2015 6 News Little pluralism in languages JAMES DEBONO A decline in the number of students sitting for Italian and French exami- nations has not been accompanied by any notable increase in students taking alternative languages such as German or Spanish since 2006, and Arabic and Russian remain the choice of a tiny minority. A comparison between statistics published by Matsec in 2006 and to- day shows the number of students sit- ting for the Italian examination falling from 2,794 to 1,924 and the number of students sitting for the French exami- nation falling from 2,133 to 1,325. This translates into a 17% drop in the percentage of total registrations for Italian and 25% in students sitting for French. But despite this sharp decrease, the number of students sitting for Span- ish saw only an increase from 3.5% to 4.6% while the percentage sitting for German remained the same as in 2006. Compared to 2013 there was a slight decline (1.11%) in the number of regis- trations for SEC Italian in 2014. How- ever, the percentage of candidates who registered for the 2014 session is still higher than that for the 2012 ses- sion, where the lowest percentage for Italian registrations was recorded. According to Matsec examiners' re- ports during the 2014 session, most candidates who sat for the examina- tion reached the standards required. The major shortcomings were found with regard to fluency in writing. The examination report assess- ing the performance of candidates in Spanish was the most negative. "The essays this year were particularly poor, possibly the poorest observed in a very long time". It noted that there were a number of essays which were almost entire- ly written in English or Italian. "A number of others tried to adapt words in Maltese, English, Italian or a combi- nation of all three languages to Span- ish, resulting in unintelligible texts," the report said. The performance of candidates sitting for SEC French in 2014 was deemed as not being radically differ- ent from that in previous years. Can- didates tended to fare better when it came to listening and reading skills than in writing. Another examination report wel- comed "a halt in the decreasing number of candidates evident in previous years". In fact the number of candidates had fallen from 473 in 2010 to 346 in 2013. According to the report, candidates seemed to be often influenced by the English language with respect to syn- tax and grammar. Most candidates were able to conduct a basic conver- sation. Only 28 candidates sat for the Rus- sian exam, the majority of whom "seemed to be native Russian speak- ers" according to the Matsec report. Although only 28 candidates sat for the Arabic exam in 2014, this is dou- ble the number of candidates who sat for it in 2006 when only 13 took the exam. The examiners' report noted that in the oral component some Maltese- speaking candidates were at times completely tongue-tied or else used Maltese words to compensate for their lack of vocabulary with regard to their conversation topic. "Unfortunately, the majority of the non-Arab candidates showed poor pronunciation, diction and intonation in Arabic." On the other hand non-Maltese Arabic speaking candidates showed difficulty in refraining from switching to dialectal Arabic while talking. Candidates struggled most in writ- ing an essay. Most of the candidates either did not write anything at all or did not write more than a few sentences. Most can- didates did not even manage to write 100 words. Only half the students tak- ing the examination were given a pass mark. MATTHEW VELLA THE son of nurses' union boss Paul Pace has been employed on a 'person of trust' basis by the Maltese govern- ment, to take up the post of procure- ment officer at St Vincent de Paul home for the elderly. Although the vacancy could have been filled by an internal or external call for applications, Nicholas Pace – who is aged 20 – was engaged at SVPR on a Scale 7 salary on the strength of a political appointment. The Scale 7 salary ranges from €21,000 to €24,000. Principals who join the civil service usually proceed to Scale 7 on completion of 12 years in the grade. The ministry for family and social solidarity confirmed that Pace held the position of secretariat officer with- in the parliamentary secretariat for the elderly up to March 2014. He was then engaged as a procurement officer within SVPR on a three-year contract. The ministry did not explain why no call for applications for the post of procurement officer was issued. Despite taking four weeks to answer MaltaToday's request for a comment, the ministry also failed to specify what qualifications had justified Pace's ap- pointment. The ministry said that Pace's du- ties included preparing tender docu- ments and vetting all stages of the procurement process, operating the e-procurement portal and other tasks as assigned to him by the SVPR chief executive officer. "Considering the number of ad- ministrative shortcomings which the present administration inherited from the PN, Mr Pace was given this con- tract on a 'person of trust' basis," the ministry told MaltaToday. German and Spanish make no gains among students, despite drop in Italian and French 2014 2006 % of registrations % of registrations Italian 29 35 French 20 26.7 German 5.7 5.6 Spanish 4.6 3.5 Arabic 0.4 0.2 Russian 0.3 0.2 Greek 0 0 Latin 3 0 Number of students sitting for exam in 2014 Italian 1924 French 1325 German 378 Spanish 301 Arabic 28 Russian 21 Greek 1 Latin 1 Union boss's son, 20, being paid €21,000 on 'person of trust' basis MUMN president Paul Pace