The comments made by Professor Kenneth Wain at a Nationalist Party breakfast meeting last week unfortunately did not stir the debate that was probably intended by the learned professor. And it is a pity, because the subject he brought up is actually the basis of the country’s future.

Prof. Wain urged the government to stop the present selective education system and convert it into a more inclusive one, which entails the removal of entrance and junior lyceum examinations. He said that selectivity within schools is socially unfair and does not instill a culture of life-long learning.

All that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said at the same meeting in reply to such a strong statement is that the issue of streaming children, especially from a young age, is a crucial debate that will define the opportunities and careers of the next generation.

Since then, no more has been said about the subject. The Nationalist Party and the government did not comment about it; maybe because the party in government wants to concentrate on other issues and does not want to rock the education boat at this stage. Education Minister Dolores Cristina has not spoken about the matter either, at least not in public.

The Malta Labour Party, whose spokesmen are always keen to release statements on every subject under the sun, chose to ignore the comments as well, probably going for a cautious approach when it comes to education after its ludicrous pre-election proposal to introduce a reception class in between kindergarten and primary schooling.

What Prof. Wain said should be debated, not only at the political level, but also by education authorities and experts in the field. One may agree or disagree with the proposals put forward by Prof. Wain, but his comments should not have been dismissed so easily.

It is rather astonishing that such a delicate matter, at a time when schools are about to re-open after the summer holidays, has not been taken up, especially considering that streaming of young children has always been a topic that was amply discussed, both locally and abroad.

Those in favour say that examinations are there to make a distinction that is necessary for the more intelligent children to proceed with their studies without having other, less bright students keeping them back.

Those against insist that by making this distinction, the less intelligent students are bound to lose the little interest they might have in furthering their studies, while at the same time, the more intelligent students are having more and more pressure thrown on them because they are expected to perform well.

What is sure is that in Malta we give too much importance to examinations, and this is perhaps the crux of what Prof. Wain wanted to put across in his arguments last week. His statement that “exams are harming the education system” should not be taken lightly. Instead, it should be analysed and a serious study started to see to what extent examinations are causing so much harm.

While acknowledging that an exam is a way of assessing the progress or otherwise of students, at the same time it must be said that they should not be the only way of doing so.

In Malta, it seems that exams are the be-all and end-all of our education system, and the amount of stress that we are putting on our students is enormous.

One wonders how many students get discouraged and/or fall by the wayside because of a failed examination. Malta needs all the human resources it can get simply because they are our main asset, and no-one should be “lost” in the process.