As candidates who took the EFL examination on Saturday, 26 March we were appalled at the light-hearted manner in which the so-called typographical mistakes were referred to (TMID, 30 March) by the Education Ministry.

Not only were the errors in the printing of the IPA phonemes a major distraction, resulting in the inability to concentrate, but there were further errors towards the end of the paper in Section C. The entire examination was pandemonium. It was conducted like a football match without a referee.

In addition to the “typographical errors” there were other items that need addressing:

• The paper required that candidates write their names as well as their index numbers; in other public examinations only an index number is mandatory.

• We agree that an examination of this standard has been needed for some time as it measures and assesses the knowledge of the teacher and shows that we are serious professionals in the EFL market. However, to remove one of the most important sections on the paper demonstrates how low in importance this section is.

• While studying for this exam, we were relieved to find out that the exam had been extended by 30 minutes but were shocked to find, on opening the paper, that the number of marks per question had changed and the content was not as had been advised by the Monitoring Board. Were these changes approved by the Department of Education’s Examination Board?

• The execution and management of the examination in Gozo was not as chaotic as Malta but we had to wait one hour for a decision to be made. The Gozitan candidates were told “try to make sense” or leave out the erroneous questions. Can you imagine the stress that we had to go through in that hour as we tried to make sense of something that was totally inaccurate?

• In the main examination hall at St Elmo the attitude and conduct of the invigilators was appalling. They called us names and shouted at us uncontrollably. There was no control and the situation in the main hall was total disgrace. Candidates were stopped from leaving and a squabble broke out.

• The layout and presentation of the paper was less than professional and it was not just the phonology section which contained errors, there were errors in another exercise towards the end of the paper. If the EFL Monitoring Board and the Examination Board were serious in their concern regarding what went on during the exam, they would have stopped it and made arrangements for the candidates to resit the examination. How can the candidates who left the examination room, upset over the lack of management control, be compensated? We are sure there must be other candidates who feel exactly as we do. We went prepared and feeling confident only to leave feeling cheated, let down and disgusted by what had happened.

Does the government realise that they are playing with our lives? We earn our living from teaching English as a foreign language.

Kevin Sant, Sarah Zammit, Josef Cachia, Petra Cilia, Peter Borg ,Tara Azzopardi, Rukhsana Shah , Lorran Alamango, Tanya Agius

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