Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/914278
TIA RELJIC THE Ministry of Education failed to publicly announce the findings of a national report on literacy rates published this week, which revealed that Mal- tese students fared significantly worse in 2016 when compared to 2011. The report placed Malta in 40th place out of 50 participating countries, as the very worst per- forming among European coun- tries. The Progress in International Reading Study (PIRLS) 2016 re- port showed that the reading score of students in the Maltese language – 452 – was lower than 2011's score of 457. In 2011, the test was adminis- tered to 10-year-olds in Maltese as a benchmark exercise but the main test was administered in English reading, resulting in a score of 477. In 2016, the main test was administered in Maltese only. Malta remained under the in- ternational average score of 500. The reading attainment of Mal- tese students was comparable to students from United Arab Emirates but was higher than only nine countries: Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Oman, Kuwait, Morocco, Egypt, and South Africa. The PIRLS report is a com- parative study of the reading attainment of ten-year-olds, conducted under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). When asked why the findings were not publicly announced, the ministry failed to respond. But asked to comment about the findings themselves, a spokesper- son for minister Evarist Bartolo explained that the study does not take bilingualism into consid- eration, and does not account for the fact that small countries have relatively smaller num- bers. Maltese pupils slip further down in global reading study Newspaper post PAGE 2 have relatively PGS 4-5 Education ministry does not announce PIRLS report highlighting regression in literacy among children THIS IS NO C.S.I Criminologist Saviour Formosa €1.75 YOUR FIRST READ AND CLICK OF THE DAY WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT maltatoday today today SUNDAY • 10 DECEMBER 2017 • ISSUE 944 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY Phone data on Msida car bomb could hold link to suspects MATTHEW VELLA POLICE investigators buoyed by the arrests of a criminal gang sus- pected of having carried out the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, are working on new linkages to previously unsolved car bomb executions. The extraction of some eight mo- bile phones – all of them 2G phones in a bid to evade data triangulation – from the seabed in the Grand Harbour close to the criminal den in Marsa where the arrests were carried out, could well hold the clue to who commissioned the heinous murder. Suspects George Degiorgio 'ic- Ciniz', his brother Alfred Degiorgio 'il-Fulu', and Vincent Muscat 'il- Kohhu' were arrested on Monday but have refused to utter a single world during questioning, and con- tacted no lawyer to assist them in court during their arraignment – a sign that the hardened criminals are clearly well briefed on their legal situation as things stand. MaltaToday is informed that po- lice believe the accused did not even create the bomb itself, but were re- sponsible for procuring and carry- ing out the execution. Additionally, the evidence at hand is suggesting a strong link to previ- ous bomb attempts, namely with the car bomb that permanently maimed Romeo Bone in Msida, back on 17 February. The attack, carried out in broad daylight on the busy Msida thoroughfare, left the Floriana man severely injured, having lost both legs in the attack. SUSPECT'S STINGRAY Corvette snapped inside criminal den The familiar rusty gates of the Marsa sheds where the Degiorgio brothers were arrested last week serve as a background to this Corvette Stingray, which eyewitnesses working in the port area said they had already seen "To picture Malta as a crime haven, when it is one of the safest countries in the EU... to me, that's inexcusable" 14 15 YOUR FIRST READ AND CLICK OF THE DAY WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT maltatoday Which toys will fly off the shelf this Christmas? 6 Death of a Soho gangster Behind the legend of 'Big Frank' Mifsud, the story of a vice-lord who ran the Soho skin trade 10 11