Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/939870
8 News maltatoday SUNDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2018 JAMES DEBONO CANDIDATES from Church schools are still outperforming state and independent school pu- pils in their O-level results. While 37.3% of state candidates gained their entry requirements for Sixth Form, 68.4% of church school and 57.1% of independent school candidates were more suc- cessful. Candidates from independent schools were more likely to be awarded the top Grade 1 in the majority of subjects, while church school candidates were more like- ly to gain the entry requirements for Sixth Form, overall. The inde- pendent school candidates were more likely to obtain Grades 1, 2, and 3 in English Language, Math- ematics, and Physics; church school candidates were more like- ly to obtain Grades 1, 2, and 3 in Maltese. But the latest statistical review by Matsec shows a substantial change from 2014. In 2014, 34.9% (2.4 percentage points less than 2017) of state can- didates gained entry to Sixth Form, compared to 75.3% (6.9% more than 2017) of church school can- didates. Independent school can- didates who went into Sixth Form dropped by six points in 2017, from 62.9% in 2014 to 57.1% in 2017. Overall pass rates in 2017 are roughly similar to those of 2014. Girls perform better Girls still do better than boys by a substantial margin. While 54.7% of females born in 2001 gained a Sixth Form pass, only 44.1% of males did so. The gender gap is now larger than that in 2016 and 2015 but smaller than that in 2014. In the majority of subjects, the largest percentage of candidates who obtained Grade 1 were fe- males. They were also more likely than males to obtain Grades 1, 2, 3 and 4. Boys were more likely to obtain Grades 5, 6, 7 and U. Female candidates were more likely to obtain Grade 1 in Maltese, English, and Physics, while male candidates were more likely to ob- tain Grade 1 in Mathematics and Biology. Opening new paths in education For the first time ever, the 2017 exam session also included a pilot group of 92 students who had cho- sen to learn a vocational subject in 2014. As from 2015 the subjects were made available to all students. "The results presented in this re- port show that this was a success- ful initiative which offered new opportunities to students with a better aptitude for practical work than abstract knowledge," a MAT- SEC report said. The vocational subjects offered include Agribusiness, Engineer- ing Technology, Health & Social Care, Hospitality, and Information Technology. Although the final assessment on performance in vocational subjects took place in 2017, continuous as- sessment, including a yearly cen- trally-set controlled assessment, started in 2014. Significantly in vocational subjects all candidates managed to present their course- work. In all vocational subjects but Hospitality, 80% of candidates scored an average 40/60 or more in their coursework component. In Hospitality, 80% of the candidates obtained at least 31-35 out of 60. Church school drop in O-level passes Students from state schools who move into Sixth Form up by two points from 2014, church school students drop by seven points MARIA PACE A University of Malta study is seek- ing to develop a device to be worn by sufferers of dementia, which can track changes in movement that sig- nal whether the person is lost. Malta is home to over 5,300 people who in 2013 suffered from dementia, around 1.26% of the population. Dementia affects memory and ori- entation, language and judgement, and by 2030 the condition is project to affect at least 9,880 people in Mal- ta as its population grows and ages. A research team led by the Univer- sity of Malta says it can use PEM (per- vasive electronic monitoring) to track people's movements and recognise unusual behaviour – namely, learn- ing if a person suffering of dementia has wandered away from their carers. This wandering off is difficult to assess, and the reasons for the be- haviour remain unclear: different in- dividuals' habits are personalised in some kind of pattern. Team leader Conrad Attard told Think Magazine the research pro- poses a smart mobile technology tool that logs patients' wandering pat- terns, and gathers the data to iden- tify possible dangers, and give useful, real-time information to carers on their patients' status. "One of the most unfortunate side- effects of dementia is that sufferers are often stopped from walking about because of the risk of injury and fa- tality," Attard explained. "Although 'wandering', as we call it, can be a positive thing, helping patients re- main active, it requires someone to be with them constantly. But through a PEM system we could give a leap in the quality of life patients with de- mentia have." Currently in its early stages, re- searchers want to create a framework for a wearable or implanted device. The real challenge is to anticipate any danger for such sufferers, by ana- lysing the patterns of walking back and forward or zigzagging. "Then it would be able to differ- entiate between when a patient is walking aimlessly and when they are walking with purpose. The device would also need to identity the pos- sibility of danger for the patients in their surroundings. mpace@mediatoday.com.mt 'Wearables' can find dementia sufferers who get lost THE operators of a Russian- style boarding school have been ordered to refund over €2 mil- lion in loans and interest to BNF Bank. DHM Property Investments, which is owned by Russian na- tionals Evgueni and Snezhana Bodishtianu and associate com- pany Zebra Group, were or- dered to pay back the ban €2.09 million for some six individual loans. The boarding school, located in the seaside village of St Paul's Bay, had already been ordered by a court to refund €58,000 in school fees paid in advance by the mother of a student, shortly before the school abruptly an- nounced it would be closing down. Iulia Samunina filed her claim after paying exorbitant tuition fees in advance in 2015, but in January 2016 the parents re- ceived a letter from the school, informing them that the school would be closing down and would be unable to provide educational services to their children. Several requests for an expla- nation went unanswered, but eventually Samunina was in- formed that the school was un- able to continue to operate due to financial problems. In another similar case, Elza Kulieva, and Victoria Mako- eva and Dimitri Perfilev from Germany took Boarding School (Malta) Ltd to court for the re- fund of fees they paid in 2014 for a three-year term for their children. The school, which catered for both primary and secondary lev- els of education, closed its doors in the middle of the scholastic year, just two years into that contract. The parents claimed that they were forced to send their chil- dren back to Russia as no other educational institution on the island offered the same curricu- lum and could accommodate new students halfway through a year. Shuttered Russian boarding school told to pay Banif Bank €2 million In the majority of subjects, the largest percentage of candidates who obtained Grade 1 were females