Education Minister To Make Maltese Language Even More Mandatory At Schools
A Maltese O-level could soon become mandatory for entry into MCAST (pictured) and the ITS
Students will need a Maltese O-Level to enter MCAST and ITS and all foreign students will be obliged to learn Maltese as a foreign language at primary and secondary school, according to a plan outlined this afternoon by education minister Evarist Bartolo.
“We want to strengthen the national language at all levels of our education system,” Bartolo told a press conference. “The current Maltese O-Level pass rate is 61%, an improvement from previous years, but we want to increase it further.”
This is all still at a pre-consultation level and the education ministry will consult with stakeholders before drafting any concrete measures. However, an original plan to grant alternative Maltese language courses to English-speaking Maltese students has been scrapped.
Foreign students who don’t sit for regular Maltese classes at primary and secondary schools will be obliged to study it as a foreign language. Bartolo said he is open to discussing with stakeholders a third option for half-Maltese students and Maltese students who return to the island from European schools, but refused to commit to anything in this regard at this stage. However, he definitively ruled out that they will be taught Maltese as a foreign language.
Education minister Evarist Bartolo
He also urged the University of Malta to update its entry requirements, so as to render the new ‘Foreign Maltese’ O-level mandatory for foreign students just as a pass in regular Maltese is mandatory for Maltese students.
According to the proposal, students who fail their Maltese O-level will no longer be able to pursue a post-secondary education at MCAST or the Institute for Tourism Studies, as a pass in Maltese will become mandatory just as it is for entry into the UoM.
Elsewhere, students sitting for vocational subjects at secondary schools will be able to sit for an alternative applied Maltese O-level, tailor-made to their vocation of choice. There are currently five vocational subjects (engineering, IT, agribusiness, health and social care) on offer for state school students, but four new courses in retailing, hairdressing & beauty, textiles & fashion and media are set to be introduced in the near future.
What do you make of these proposals?
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