Speaking their language

Abstract

Towards the beginning of last May, when I was invited for a meeting by the Minister for Education and Employment to discuss foreign language teaching and learning at secondary State and non State schools, we soon realised that the situation was quite worrying. Unfortunately, the number of school leavers who have no accredited certification in foreign language skills as well as in English and Maltese is on the increase. This notwithstanding the fact that they have studied these languages for a number of years, both at primary and at secondary level. In fact, in the Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) examination session of May 2013, 38.5 per cent of the 1997 cohort of students (who turned 16 in 2013) failed to register for any foreign language at SEC level, 19 per cent failed to register for English language and 23.7 per cent did not apply for Maltese. Besides, one must also take into account another 12-15 per cent of students who either register but fail to turn up for the examinations or do not make the grade.