School differences in physics examinations for grammar type schools in Malta

Abstract

This paper studies the school differences in performance in Physics in the last two years of compulsory secondary education in Malta. Five grammar type schools are included in the study. Students’ performance in their fourth year annual Physics examination and the Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) School leaving examination one year later are considered. The longitudinal study shows that although there is a correlation between the fourth form annual examination and the papers for SEC Physics up to a value of 0.68, a shift in performance from one year to another was observed in certain schools, especially in one girls’ school which registered a drastic decrease in performance from one year to the next. It is argued that these school differences, which may also reflect gender differences since schools are single sex, reflect the still prevailing attitude in Malta for the male to be the family breadwinner. This seems to be the case mainly in families from a lower socio-economic level, as in the catchment area of the girls’ school in this study. The implications of differences in performance within and across schools is then discussed.