Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/774426
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 18 JANUARY 2017 4 News One third of Maltese do not browse JAMES DEBONO THE Maltese are more likely to use online social networks than email and a third do not browse online, a Europe-wide survey by the EU com- mission shows. While Europeans are more likely to use their email than the social media, the Maltese are more likely to use the social media than their email. While 50% of the Maltese use on- line social networks on a daily basis, compared to just 39% of citizens in all 28 EU member states, only 45% of the Maltese use email on a daily basis, compared to 46% of citizens in all EU member states. The survey also shows that Malta has a larger percentage of citizens than other EU countries who never use the internet for browsing pur- poses. While 33% of Maltese never use the internet to browse, only 22% of all EU citizens are in the same situation. The survey shows that there are 18 Member States where at least one in five respondents say they never use the Internet to browse online or they do not have access to the Internet, with those in Romania (36%), Malta (33%) and Bulgaria (32%) the most likely to say so. The Maltese are the sec- ond most likely of Euro- peans to use their fixed phone line everyday, the survey shows. But the Mal- tese are also among the most likely never to use email. While only 38% of respondents in all 28 EU members use a fixed line everyday, 62% of Maltese use a fixed line every day. When it comes to the use of a fixed line, the Maltese are only surpassed by the Greeks, 74% of whom use their fixed line every day. The least likely to use their fixed line on a daily basis are the Finns, two per cent of whom only use their fixed line daily. Only four per cent of the Maltese never use their fixed line – com- pared to 21% of Europeans and 88% of the Finns. The Maltese are also more likely to use the mobile phone on a daily basis to make calls and send mes- sages than the average European. While 80% of the Maltese use their mobile phone daily compared to 74% of Europeans, only 5% of Mal- tese never use their mobile phone – compared to seven per cent of all Europeans. The survey also shows that 40% of the Maltese use the internet for instant messaging every day. This is just one percentage below the European average. 43% of Maltese and 40% of all respondents in the EU 28 never use the internet for this purpose. The Dutch (61%) are the most likely to use the internet for this purpose. 45% of the Maltese use the email on a daily basis compared to an EU average of 46%. The most likely to use email daily are the Dutch (67%) and the Finns (64%) The absolute majority of the Mal- tese (64%) incorrectly believe that according to law, instant messaging and online voice conversations are confidential and nobody can access them without their permission. This incorrect belief is also shared Malta EU 28 % % Use social media daily 50 39 Send an email daily 46 45 Use fixed phone daily 62 38 Use mobile phone daily 80 74 Never browse on internet 33 22 Never use social media 35 40 Gender gap highest ever in A level exams JAMES DEBONO 2016 saw the largest ever percent- age of 18-year-olds qualifying for the Matriculation Certificate since 2004 and the largest gap was ob- served in the performance between males and females since 2004, the annual report by the MATSEC Sup- port Unit shows. Students normally study two sub- jects at Advanced level and another four at Intermediate level, including Systems of Knowledge. 28.2% of the 4,026 children born in 1998 qualified for the Matricula- tion Certificate in 2016. While only 21.1% of males qualified for the cer- tificate, a record 35.7% of females born in 1998 qualified. 40.7% of the 18-year-old cohort born in 1998 (33.0% of males and 48.9% of females) registered for Ad- vanced Level examinations while 41.9% (33.8% of males and 50.4% of females) registered for Intermediate Level examinations in 2016. The increase in the percentage of students gaining Matriculation cer- tification is probably the result of changes to regulations in 2012. In 2012 the May and September sittings became two separate ses- sions and candidates were allowed to satisfy the criteria for the award of the certificate over five years. An unintended consequence of this change was that many students of Sixth Form schools and colleges started to sit for Matriculation ex- aminations in September after they had finished their first year at school and before they had obtained a ma- ture understanding of the subjects which they attempted. In fact, 1,181 candidates (39.9%) used the September 2016 session as their first sit. The overall percentage of the 18-year-old cohort qualifying for the Matriculation Certificate has exceeded 25% after the change in regulations in 2012. While in the eight years before the change in regulations, an average of 23.2% of the population used to gain the nec- essary entry requirements for Uni- versity, in the four years after the change in regulations 27.1% did so. At Intermediate level, the intro- duction of Psychology in 2013 at- tracted many students who used to opt for other humanities subjects in previous years. In fact in 2016, 25.6% of all candidates sat for Psy- chology while Religious Knowledge, Sociology and Philosophy suffered losses of 6.1%, 6.7% and 10.8% re- spectively when the 2006 figures are taken into account. Company denies being paid for works it did not carry out for Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools JURGEN BALZAN AVANTGARDE Projects has de- nied having been paid for works it did not do at Handaq government school, as reported in The Sunday Times. Refuting the allegations, the company explained that it ac- cepted a lower payment than it had invoiced solely to avoid protracted court action. The report claims that in 2015, education minister Evarist Bar- tolo had signed off over €400,000 in payments to a private company – Avantgarde Projects – for unap- proved works carried out at St Ig- natius College, despite resistance from the board of the Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools (FTS). According to the report, over the course of the works, the contractor started claiming higher fees than those which had been previously agreed on. Following allegations made by FTS chief executive officer Philip Rizzo, the police launched a probe into corruption allegations to in- vestigate serious discrepancies arising from works not carried out – but paid for by the FTS – and the role played by Evarist Bartolo's aide Edward Caruana. In a statement issued yesterday, the company said that after be- ing awarded a tender in 2011 by the Foundation for Tomorrow's Schools to carry out works at the school, it was then requested to carry out additional work which was not included in the contract. The company started facing dif- ficulties when in August 2012 FTS stopped payments "without jus- tification and failed to handover substantial parts of the site for the works to be completed on time." For this reason, the company said it incurred additional expenses but once the foundation released the site, the works were completed. After issuing an invoice for all the works, the company claimed that FTS refused to pay up, for no good reason. Avantgarde Projects added that it then handed a dossier of the facts to FTS, the Director of Contracts and then Education Minister Do- lores Cristina. After the general election the same document was handed to minister Evarist Bar- tolo. It said that the payment handed to it in November 2015 was far lower than what was invoiced, but it accepted the foundation's offer to avoid years of court litigation and honour commitments it entered into over the same Handaq project.