When the Matsec results were announced with a triumphant flourish this week only to be quickly followed by Labour’s rebuttal that the statistics were wrong, it was easy to dismiss it as the usual “the Opposition is always criticising” type of news report.

This time, however, it’s not just the Opposition that is contradicting the government, because here we are not dealing with perceptions, but facts.

The fact is that, no matter how you try and twist the statistics, you cannot change the reality which is staring everyone in the face: the quality of our students keeps getting worse each year and the only reason they are ‘passing’ is because the benchmarks have been lowered. Who are we, exactly, trying to fool?

When you hear the news that almost 90 per cent of students passed their ‘O’ level English, Maltese and maths, it sounds like we have suddenly sprouted a generation of geniuses. But, as I remarked last week, with this administration, nothing is ever what it seems.

Labour MP Evarist Bartolo was quick to point out that the percentages included those who sat for the less challenging Paper B and got a 6 or a 7 (bearing in mind that 5 is the pass mark). Apparently these were included because such grades allowed students to continue in certain foundation courses.

Please. Can we just stop with this numbers game which is being played purely to look good in EU graphs? After all, behind the numbers are flesh and blood teenagers whose future is at stake.

Paper A is chosen by students at the top of their game, who are confident that they are good in the subject, so yes, it is good news that at least a percentage of our students have reached this level. But what about those who sit for Paper B? Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that a 5 is equivalent to 45 marks. That means a 6 or a 7 is way below that; in real terms, it means a student who has barely scraped through.

I don’t even need these figures to tell me that too many of our students are barely scraping through – I can see and hear the evidence all around me.

Ask anyone who is looking for new employees in every industry and you will get a true picture of the calibre of students we have. I’m not blaming them; I’m blaming a system which keeps trying to squeeze academic achievement out of all children as if they were robots made from the same mould. It is a system which is geared toward paper qualifications but does not cater for such vital social skills as telephone manners and dealing with the public.

Meanwhile, the Nationalist Party came out with a statement which reads like something straight out of Maoist China, in which it blows its own trumpet about its educational policies:

“The Nationalist Party said that such a high success rate confirmed the strengths of the education system, the good work of the teachers and the skills of the pupils.”

It said that education was a central pillar in government policy and major investment was being made in this sector.

The PN said that “students who had not achieved the desired results should not give up.”

I particularly love that last line. Don’t give up – maybe next year even an 8 or a 9 will be considered a pass mark.

Square pegs, round hole

I remember the days when a pass mark was over 50 per cent, take it or leave it; apparently now it seems to fluctuate.

But rather than trying to give these students the illusion that they’ve passed, maybe we should admit once and for all that not everyone is academically inclined. If you speak to people about their school days, they will all mention subjects in which they were “hopeless” and most of the time it is not because they were dim, but because their strengths lay elsewhere.

If we could just accept that some people are artistic and creative while others are logical and analytical we could probably save our children lots of grief. Instead, we insist on trying to force square pegs into round holes to make them “fit” into the rigorous and stressful torture of exams in the traditional subjects. This week, parents (and particularly mothers) all over the island were making themselves sick with worry waiting for the blessed results.

There are times I think we should bring back the concept of trade schools where children who were not academically gifted would be steered in Form 3 into a more practical course of their choosing, while still receiving the basics of English, Maltese and maths.

I realise that MCAST does offer these vocational courses, but they are only offered after finishing compulsory education. For children who can’t stand school, forcing them to endure 10 subjects they hate, so that they can finally study the one subject they love when they are 16 doesn’t make sense. By 16 the last thing they want to do is go back into the confines of a classroom. At 13 there still might be a chance that a child’s interest and imagination can be engaged, but by 15/16 if they have switched off the idea of learning altogether, it’s probably too late.

That is why, dear government, so many give up.

The numbers they’re not telling us

As I’m writing this, the ‘A’ level results have been announced, with some more creative number crunching. As the Ministry of Education continues to quibble about the true picture being painted by the statistics, it is conveniently skimming over the numbers of those who failed or who didn’t even bother to sit for any exams.

Because this is an exam-oriented society, once you have left school without any qualifications you are pretty much considered washed up. The future is bleak and the choice of job openings is meagre. What is worse is that the message these young people have been given is that, failing at school means they have failed at life. All their lives they have been told that they’re not good enough, so that is the mantra which is continuously played in their head. Even if there was a spark still left in their spirit, it will soon be extinguished as they watch the years slip by and they remain stuck in the rut of a poorly paid job in which they are often exploited and unappreciated.

These are the young people we should be concerned with; the ones that have been left behind. The bright and ambitious will succeed no matter what – most of them are leaving Malta anyway, and so they should. If we really want statistics to shout about, let’s stop focusing on Paper A, and have a good hard look at those thousands of school leavers, aged 16, who find themselves alienated, adrift and unskilled, wondering what on earth to do next.

After years of being told that they’ve failed, they need some kind of structure which unravels all the damage that has been done to their self-esteem, and shows them that they can succeed.

There is pride to be had in finding something you’re good at, which can earn you money – whether it’s carpentry or being a doctor. Let us not underestimate the importance of being happy at what you do for a living. It doesn’t have anything to do with a job which has status either. I have met shop assistants and mechanics who obviously enjoy what they do, and transmit this to the customer. Likewise, there are bitter teachers who clearly chose the wrong job, loathing every second they spend in a classroom and counting down the years left to retirement.

I had a teacher like that once, and I often wondered whether it wouldn’t have been better for him (and us) if someone had steered him into a completely different profession when he was 16.

Girl power

One statistic which did jump out at me was that girls have outdone the boys once again in all subjects.

This is good news for women themselves, but it is a double-edged sword, because it also means that there is a growing gender discrepancy in educational levels. It is safe to say that more girls will probably continue with their studies while more boys will lag behind or drop out.

Ten years from now, the girls who have achieved excellent ‘O’ and ‘A’ level results will look around and wonder why they cannot meet a man who is at least their intellectual equal.

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