Today I heard a new one: Evarist is launching a public consultation on whether the (school) colleges should be ‘reshuffled’ to balance out the differences in student population between colleges.

Anticipating resistance to this idea (in terms of school uniforms, etc) he said it might turn out that after the consultation process everything will remain as is.

The new system also has streaming in most subjects so your ‘dunces’ will not really be with your ‘race horses’ where it matters most. In any case, independent schools and many of the church schools always had mixed ability classes and their ratios of undergraduates were invariably better than those of state schools, under any system.

Please bear in mind the magnitude of disempowerment thrown at a child of eleven when he/she is told that they cannot even go to the same school as their friends – the level of rejection can affect them for the rest of their lives. And yes, following the self-fulfilling prophecy theory, some could well end up on benefits. But they needn’t have, had they not been told they’re substandard at eleven. And, at that age, you really can’t tell what their potential is.

Some students peak for their Junior Lyceum exam and then fizzle off into failure, while others make up for lost ground in the senior school because they prefer and do better in that setting. Sending them off to area secondary schools will really not be an incentive to better themselves. On the contrary most used to be as discouraged as were their teachers who felt side-lined when sent to teach them.

This way they can be sure to offend everyone.

33% is next year’s 25%.

You read it here first.

Like when are we going to take that camping holiday we always promised ourselves after watching Brokeback Mountain together?

I know for a fact that a decision was taken not to allow animals in circuses in Malta, well before they started the consultation process.

I agree with the decision, but certainly not with having a false and empty consultation process.

Why can’t they have the balls to say that they have taken a decision becasue that is what they think is the right thing to do?

Ara l-Ministru kemm hu minn taghna. Anke juza l-fejsbuk u hotmejl

Without entering into the much debated stipend issue, of the Sant years, I still harbour some hope that Bartolo may prove to be more competent than his predecessor. With all respect to Dolores Cristina, she effectively sounded the death knell for the Junior Lyceum system, which despite its various shortcomings, supplied the majority of university undergraduates. Removing the accepted streaming system and integrating the lyceums into a college system, killed off all that was good about the Junior Lyceums system.

The Nationalist government policy of building a new state of the art state school every year was an initiative that was to be lauded. Some of the older schools were in shambles (although they were already in such a state in 1987 which means that the initiative came a little too late.) However, good schooling is much more than the sum of its parts. You need functional buildings, interactive white boards, overhead projectors, and even tablets! More importantly, you need teachers who actually have a vocation (for many teachers it is just a job). It also requires students who are like minded and who are capable of keeping the set pace. Even one dunce per class is enough to slow down the progress of the best students.

As they stand, Junior Lyceums now see race and work horses placed together with the remaining horses, that from a young age show no promise other than an intent to graze off social benefits for the rest of their life. A reflection of mixed society? Perhaps! Is it conducive to good education? Not necessarily? In the end, you may take a horse to the water you cannot, necessarily, make it drink!

So at such a crucial stage, can Bartolo and his government salvage all that was good in government education, or is it simply going to be allow it to keep heading to the dogs? Doing nothing is not really an option!