This is the biology examination paper which (among other things) led to Vince Taliana being fired from St Aloysius College
Published:
March 28, 2014 at 7:41pm
I am glad that somebody actually held on to it, kept it where it could be found immediately, photographed it and sent it to me just now. If I had been merely told about it, I wouldn’t have believed it and would have assumed it to be an outright lie or exaggeration.
I am informed by some of the boys – now men – who were faced with this examination paper written by Vince Taliana that all the names used in the questions were of pupils actually in that class.
Vince Taliana
141 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Why has this taken so long to come to light? Thankfully, they have now got an extremely decent female biology teacher, who previously taught at San Anton School.
Why was the teacher given the go-ahead to present such an exam paper to the students? Don’t the school authorities vet the paper before?
I never studied biology so I wouldn’t know whether the question is pertinent to the subject – although these questions give me the impression that this exam paper is for sexual and not biology purposes.
I doubt the need to use names in these questions when one could have easily used generic terms such as “a boy”, or any common name like the usual John.
Ex-SAC student, I believe that the said exam paper should and could have been written much better as one can easily relate these questions to actual people/students.
The names were inserted deliberately. The disclaimer itself is what is fictitious.
Biology is a science. Science asks about facts. So one would normally be asked to name elements of the reproductive system, possibly draw and label a diagram (rarely on this subject), and discuss functions.
The question here is more about conjectures: what if scenarios.
I agree. These are no biology questions – by any stretch of the imagination
As someone who is dedicated to the welfare of children I can honestly say I have never been so disgusted and saddened at the thought of children being exposed to something like this.
I don’t care two fiddly hoots who these people are – if they are around children trusted by parents anything that is inappropriate, like language, crude jokes, snide remarks, should mean they are kicked out and put on a register as unsuitable to work with or around children.
And this man actually has a son and a daughter.
No one ever taught me any of that in biology!
*Eyes pop out and fall to the ground*
You cannot be serious. In all my years at high school, I don’t remember my biology course covering anything of the sort!
A no less shocking aspect of that exam question is Taliana’s inability to use correct grammar and vocabulary.
Oh what memories. I remember this episode well. He cried like a girl after he got out of the headmaster’s (or was it the rector’s?) office, having been given the sack.
It would be Rector. So they gave him the sack. Good for them.
Unbelievable. What does this have to do with biology?
This is sick.
Nice conjoring trick you withc – your minons
get with times u ghey hater
Obviously a sarcastic reference to some of the comments posted by Taliana and his pedo friends
*witch
**minions
***Get WITH the times
****gay
If you’re going to insult someone, at least do it correctly.
Oops.
I missed the sarcasm, not realising that it was a regular commenter who wrote this.
My apologies, Il-Ginger.
If I had the power I would start investigating many Maltese personalities. First check would be a drug test.
Why don’t we start with the well known ONE celebrity who contacts teenagers and underage boys for online sex chats and lures them to his apartment with the promise of alcohol, drugs and money in exchange for sexual acts?
Has this been reported to the relevant authorities?
What?
Reality, if you are sure of what you are saying, then it is your duty to report it to the police, especially with underage boys being involved.
The fact that this guy is still teaching says a lot about the sense of discipline in this sweet land of ours. Am I being prudish or are the questions set on this exam paper the result of a perverted mind?
The questions are irrelevant to the subject. As far as I know, sexuality – as opposed to sexual reproduction – is not on the O-level biology curriculum.
The term ‘dwarf penis’ does not exist.
The word cryptochidism is spelt incorrectly.
‘Carmelo, very recently when he is 15’ makes for appalling English.
The general tone of these questions is utterly unacceptable.
Who on earth vetted and reviewed this paper?
Presumably Taliana himself.
Come on Varist, practise what you preach.
Are those all names of actual students?
[Daphne – Yes, in that very class.]
Goodness… and this man was re-employed in another school? I truly cannot believe it. It’s almost like some lewd April Fool’s joke.
Obviously, it’s much easier to get rid of a rubbish employee by giving them a good reference and sending them on their way. Reminds me of The Brittas Empire (that’s how Brittas was employed).
This ties into what I’ve always said about governance in schools and the lack of easy incident reporting mechanisms. If this guy harms any children (like he has in this exam paper, or worse), the blame must lie with the schools, as much as with the man, because they hush these things up, rather than escalate them.
TWO schools. He was at St Martin’s before moving to Tal-Handaq.
What a disgusting being this man is
I was also a pupil at St Aloysius College when this happened. In fact, those affected by this test paper are exactly my age, but were in a different group, as I did not choose the sciences.
Biology examinations were spread across multiple classrooms because of the large number of pupils, so I found myself in the same exam room as these biology pupils.
I did not immediately understand what was happening as I had a completely unrelated test paper myself, but very soon, especially when many of the biology pupils reached that stage of the test, I could hear the giggles.
The invigilators were taken aback at first, but they quickly realised what happened when one boy pointed out this section of the test paper. All names mentioned in that section are of real pupils in my year and of course everyone knew who was who.
St Aloysius College has certainly changed from the time I was there.
They should have thoroughly vetted anyone who could have had whatsoever influence on their pupils and particularly the teachers.
To their credit the Jesuits immediately got rid of that creep.
I think he is more a pervert than anything else, nothing close to a biology teacher.
I am sure he did not get the questions from biology books or past papers as the word “guys” surely does figure there.
From his Facebook feed:
Dear Dad,
I just read what she wrote and I’m really hurt and sad that someone could wright so many cruel things about you. She doesn’t have any right to wright such things on a person who she doesn’t even know. How can she say those things when she doesn’t even know what a heart of gold you have? Or how much you respect your student? She wouldnt know that ofc because she doesn’t know you. She just speaks from her ass and try ruining the lives of others. She should be banned from living in this world because her cruilty is too much. I just wanted to let you know that you should be proud of yourself and that you’re surrounded with people who adore you , the first one being me xxxxxxx
You have my full support daddy , don’t let that sorry excuse of a human being bring you down xxxxxxxxx
I love you so much xxxxxxxddddd
And here we have an exam paper he made years ago. How ironic.
What, these children speak to their father via Facebook? Oh My God. This is worse than the Kardashians and Reality TV put together.
The problem with those who are warped to the point that they think it’s normal is that they assume everyone else is warped like them.
The apple does not fall far from the tree – mainly the reason why our country and the Maltese society are what they are today.
Let alone spiteful, how childish of the teacher.
I cannot believe this! How sick and disgusting – each question is worse than the other! How on earth did this sick individual EVER get hired to work in education again after this? I really am disgusted.
My answer to question d) would have been:
Teacher go to the back of the classroom and write cryptorchidism (or cryptorchism) one hundred times.
I studied Anatomy and Physiology and criptochidism and dwarf penises were not in our syllabus.
Unfortunately, my teacher was not as good as Vince Taliana.
I admit, I had to look up ‘dwarf penises” but I am none the wiser because it is not even a condition.
Can anyone help me in question ‘a’. Or maybe we can ask Greg.
This jackass is a teacher?
Sperms!
What a slimy little worm!
What the hell are you seeing strange in this paper?? It is written clearly that all names are fictitious!!! Go and get a life DCG
Those names are most certainly not fictitious! They are real names of boys in Form 4 that year. I know, because I was also a pupil there in Form 4 during the same scholastic year.
Everybody in Form 4 knew exactly to whom those names referred. There weren’t that many common first names that year. School authorities took immediate action and Taliana was fired immediately.
Mmm… that none of the questions have anything to do with the biology syllabus, maybe?
Or that the English used in not fit to be used by a teacher?
Or perhaps that, even in the remote possibility that he needed to put the questions in the paper, there was no need to put in any names at all?
Did he actually teach anything related to the questions in class? Was he ‘enriching’ the syllabus with personal content?
Finally, do you classify the term ‘both guys’ as clear written English, by any chance?
I clearly remember this incident, Abigail, and no, the names weren’t fictitious.
It happened some time after I had left St Aloysius College (between 1997-98). The father of one of those boys was an education officer at the education ministry at the time, mounting pressure on the school to show Taliana the door.
I wouldn’t even want to imagine being in the shoes of those pupils – a teenager in an all-boys college being known as the castrated guy, or the one with the dwarf penis.
With virtually all his pupils obtaining outstanding results in public exams, Taliana was deemed an excellent teacher, but he did have a scary dark side.
I remember the cult-following he had, and although I don’t think there’s anything wrong with teachers being popular with their pupils, they have to respect boundaries and behave responsibly. Taliana went close to crossing the line a number of times in my days there, and he royally did it a few years down the line with this exam paper.
But that was St Aloysius College in the 90s: effective on an academic front, but freakishly quirky on others. I heard things have changed.
How very interesting you mentioned “cult-following.” Daphne made a similar observation on Erin Tanti. When I look back on my years at Sty Aloysius College, I realise that those Jesuits caught abusing pupils also had a cult following.
Pls note that those were actual students’ names.
HE WAS FIRED FROM ST MARTINS COLLEGE AND 6TH FORM TOO!
What year?
Oh, I get it. Sixth Form at St. Martin’s College, Swatar has only been around for the last 6 years or so, so it must have been in the recent past. .
Steps should be taken to suspend this ‘teacher’ immediately and a serious investigation started.
I find it difficult to refer to him as a ‘teacher’.
Which is his full-time job– teaching or modelling/performing and showing off his perversions on Facebook?
He teaches full time and runs a business called Glamorous Events. The weird and perverse ‘modelling’ photos are one of its products.
It is outrageous of Vince Taliana’s to pose those questions in the first place. They aren’t in any way relevant to the SEC syllabus.
My question is, why wasn’t this paper screened by the school before it was actually handed to the students? As far as I know, all schools demand that teachers give them a copy of the examination paper well ahead the exam.
Easy. It’s more than likely that there was only one biology teacher employed. Thus, no one would be deemed qualified to do the vetting withing the school. Since it was a school examination, there was no need to get an external examiner to look at it. As far as the person “vetting” the paper was concerned, these might have been legitimate biology questions (and in a way, some of them could be, including the castration one).
Especially in the case of a person who has been teaching for a while with good results, methods are not questioned. This is the case even at university – professors who have been there for 20 years or more can do whatever they please, to an extent, and set ridiculously difficult exams. Who’s going to fire a head of department for being a terrible lecturer and setting exams with average marks of 45?
He was/is obsessed with sex and, more than that, with sex-related problems.
I don’t want to think what his lessons must have been like.
What the hell are you seing strange in this paper ?? It is written clearly that all names are fictitious !! go and get a life dcg
Go get an education, Abigail.
I have more education then you think and pls note i never had a better teacher then vince taliana so pls get a life and leave others to live
THAN not THEN, Abigail.
You know what, Abigail, it’s strange that he even felt the need to stress the point that the names are fictitious. Why didn’t he just use “a boy” or “a man”?
I’ve done many exams in my life, and never have I come across this disclaimer.
The fiction is the disclaimer itself.
You must be a pervert like him, defending him as you are.
Or Taliana himself.
f. “Vince has a brain that fits inside his penis. Why did he put it there?”
g. Vince is a sexual pervert. Why else would he set questions like these? (All names are fictitious …).
In order to understand the hideousness of this exam paper which contains real names of his pupils, one has to put it in context of what used to happen at those infamous “biology field work” weekends he used to organize at Savio College and Buskett for Form 5 boys.
St Aloysius College should have fired him and should have reported him so as to have his teaching warrant revoked and safeguard future students. By dismissing him quietly they just passed on the problem to other schools and other children and their parents.
Calling this man a pervert is an understatement.
He should be locked up in a mental institution and not teaching teenagers biology.
If ever one of my children encounters a teacher with such a warped mind, rest assured that he will know the answer to question 9e in no time at all.
Another perverted wannabe.
What’s more disgusting is that they are admired by a significant lot.
I know WTF is not allowed on the comments board because you want the website to keep a high standard of English, however in the circumstances I think an exemption should be given to your readers for this particular post.
I believe that St. Aloysius’ College had the moral obligation to report the teacher to the relevant competent authorities.
I would like more information as to what this exam was, e.g.: What form and what term? Was the person mentioned the only Biology teacher in the school? Did he write this himself?
When I look at this exam question in isolation and without knowing anything about the context it looks very weird. There are mistakes in the syntax and grammar and more importantly the questions about castration and morbidity are… well… morbid. The disclaimer is also very odd.
[Daphne – It was the 1997/1998 school year. The paper was set and written by Vince Taliana. I don’t know what form it was, though I am quite sure that a reader can provide that information. Biology is usually taught only to those aged 13 to 15. From a comment posted here by a former teacher at that school, it appears that Taliana may at the time have been head of department and so approved his own paper.]
It was a Form 4 exam paper.
No! it was a Form 5 test paper (Nov-Dec). Scholastic year 1998-1999.
‘Will that Effect his sperm count?’
‘guys’?
‘risking IN ending up without any sperm?’
I can’t for the life of me understand how this exam paper was handed out to St Aloysius College pupils. No wonder today’s professionals have such LOW standards.
This school, which at the time was considered the crème de la crème of Maltese schooling (I’m speaking about 20 years ago – my brother was there, and I remember the Mr Taliana incident perfectly well), actually allowed one of the teachers to dish out an exam paper riddled with spelling and orthographic mistakes.
Not to mention that the pupils involved reportedly ended up in tears during this particular exmaination as they realised immediately what their teacher had done to them.
Aren’t schools supposed to have a system whereby an exam paper is vetted by at least three teachers teaching the subject before it is handed out to pupils in an exam? This used to happen (and it still does) in state schools.
Dan ghandu warrant?!
A biology teacher who does not know that the word ‘sperms’ does not exist and in fact uses it in a test paper?
Which book did he get the term dwarf penis from?
One would hate to imagine what sort of delivery of the subject took place in class.
This paper, if authentic (because the set of questions shown are unbelievably crass), should have been supporting evidence for a complaint forwarded to the Education Department so that the teacher could be struck off and never be allowed to teach children again.
As I have said in other posts, bumping off a problem teacher so that other schools can employ him/her should not be allowed.
Is someone feeling smug perhaps because in his infinite wisdom he assumed such a person could be let loose among pubescent girls?
Kudos to recruiters, they sure do a thorough job!
Is it possible? Was this a biology paper? My children studied biology but they never had such questions in their exam paper.
Is it possible that he set the exam paper without being checked?
Shouldn’t his superiors see the paper before it is put to the boys?
I still don’t get why should we bring history back and also pick on people who have nothing to do with a newstory which lead to the death of a girl.
Many years have passed since then and this exam paper has nothing to do with the teaching. He was disciplined for it, and from what I hear from students in the class, this was an inside joke – I am not condoning it. The people mentioned moved on and are happily married, and weren’t affected in anyway. Photography and modelling have nothing to do with the existing story.
Yes it does, of course. This teacher still teaches. Would you be happy if he were teaching your son or daughter? The passing of time does not make it less bad.
If former pupils took this as a joke, you have confirmed the damage done to the whole class.
The wider issue under discussion is the safety of pupils in and out if school and the laxity of a system that allows people like Taliana and Tanti to become teachers and, in Taliana’s case at least, to continue teaching even when they have been sacked for abusive behaviour towards their charges.
Looking at this question number 9, what is the chance that the question reflects a projection of Vince ‘Pasta’ Taliana’s own conditions, in other words that: (a) he has a dwarf penis, (b) he masturbates on average 5 times/day, (c) he has homosexual tendencies, (d) he suffers from cryptochidism, and (e) he has been castrated at the age of 10 and again at the age of 15?
I would say that in my opinion it is a high chance, except perhaps for the last one.
Highly unlikely as some of those conditions are either mutually exclusive, or very probably so.
What is with these people? Have they no shame? The poor victim/s of this “test” must have been scarred for life by this awful man. Surely harassment on this scale is a criminal offence?
How can a responsible headmaster not report this pervert to the authorities?
Who would put those questions on an exam paper and expect to be considered normal and in his right senses.
Is he an Malta Union of Teachers member?
I suspect that the names were not fictitious.
Speechless. How is it possible that another college actually employed this pervert? Don’t schools investigate before employing teachers? Don’t they exchange information in the interests of the safety of those in their care?
I did my biology A’ level last year and I’m doing it again this year to get into medicine.
I’ve looked at all the past papers there have been for the past decade and there have never been questions similar to these.
The topic ‘Human Reproduction’ at ‘A’ level covers the basics: menstrual cycle, copulation, childbirth and others details that aren’t necessary to mention.
Sperm count, penis size, masturbation, homosexuality/heterosexuality, cryptochidism and castration are not in the syllabus and I doubt they have ever been.
This is the way a disturbed man exposes teenagers to his perverted ideas. If you notice, it’s the question before the last also. Perhaps he wanted to end the paper with a bang, so to speak.
Yet another very little Maltese man – is this the norm in an abnormal society?
And I thought having a frustrated mezzo soprano for a biology teacher was odd. This is hysterical (and incredibly creepy).
What sort of country is this that we live in where this man’s warrant wasn’t revoked immediately after this incident?
What a sick and spiteful excuse of a man.
It’s truly disgusting to think that this kind of filth teaches children and teenagers.
I only hope that his victims managed to recover from this ordeal than that they find the strength to come out public and expose Taliana for the disgusting pervert he is.
Surely this can’t be real. Malta is becoming more vulgar and crass by the minute.
[Daphne – It most definitely is real.]
So what was “the effect of castration on both guys”?
We didn’t cover castration at school in my days. Go figure. They never taught us anything about castration! And what if by chance we got castrated.
Why are you picking on this guy?
He is an intelligent biology teacher for god’s sake!
I used to be a student of his and I’ve never seen any wrong doing whatsoever..
Why don’t stick your noise in somebody else’s business and remember that this guy has, as you already know and should be ashamed of, two children who really don’t need someone like you to be publicly humiliating their father on no ground.
N B, did you read that test paper?
N B -Are you serious? Did you read the paper? Intelligent? This person is a bully and a pervert and if you do not see that than I dare say, so are you.
Well I don’t believe everything I see.. although some people witnessed this it was so long ago..
People make mistakes after all..
All I said is that HE was MY teacher around 2-3 years ago, and he took us on vacations abroad to further our studies and everyone loved him!
He is genuinely the nicest guy/father and you ALL should be ashamed for blaming and critizing without even knowing the guy!
You all say that he’s the bad one, well no.. you all are
This is the society you all want for your children to grow up in? Blame, judgmental and cruel – cause that is what you all are :)
You are obviously very young if 1997 was very long ago.
Woah yes definitely 1997 was like yesterday…!
Cut the crap judgemental psychos
:)
[Daphne – Yes, actually 1997 is just like yesterday to anyone who was already an adult then. Time only seems long when it covers the period where you grow from birth to around 22. After that, it contracts.]
N B, you do realise that Tanti’s followers said much the same thing about him at first. Now that the horrible truth has sunk into public consciousness, they’ve all gone quiet.
It is psycologically impossible to accommodate an unpalatable fact about someone you feel you know and genuinely admire. The psychological process you seek is assimilation, not accommodation. That means adjusting your view of an admired teacher to see him as he really is – a man who was (is?) abusive towards his pupils.
This ‘man’ clearly should not be teaching in schools! That is not a proper biology paper and it’s not just one simple question but looks more than a whole section.
This should have led to a police report and not just firing him! How could one just get fired?
That is too easy for him! What is in that paper would literally lead him to enjoy more his corrections due to his sick mind! God help us!
Disgusting, and this guy is still out there teaching young girls as if nothing ever happened
why are you judging as though he’s a rapist or worse?!
If DCG had her turn to talk, why don’t you all give this man a chance to explain himself?
you people disgust me
He had a chance to explain himself before the entire world, on Facebook.
All he said was “witch DCG”, “ax ma thariss fmera”, “beloved models xxx”.
Some explanation.
I am full of horror to see how malicious this test paper is, reaching to the extent of psychopathic behaviour. It is beyond belief.
Oh my God. I am seriously shocked.
You can’t be serious, please tell us this is an April fool’s day prank?
[Daphne – No, it’s the real test paper.]
Isn’t there a formal reporting and banning system for teachers who are fired for these reasons?
Even if there is not, St Aloysius College should have reported him o the police for improper conduct.
[Daphne – You can’t report people to the police for improper conduct. You can only report them for specific crimes, and this is not a crime. It has to be dealt with in other ways, through the education authorities and the revocation of his warrant.]
This is precisely why the reporting system within the Police Department needs to be refined for White collar crime and psychological game players.
There are far too many gaps and the onus is on the victim, when at some specific point in the enquiry/investigation the victim needs to be relieved of the load that should never, ever have happened in the first place.
It could have been indicative of a crime if those statements about the boys were true. How would their teacher have known such intimate details about them.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130603/thezone-careers/a-man-walks-into-a-bar.472312
The examination paper is replete with sexual innuendos and may easily be interpreted as being designed to humiliate these boys: hit them right where it hurts the most – in their male ego during puberty when nothing about you and the world makes any sense. What a small man. What a bully.
My thoughts exactly.
When I remember the professionalism and enthusiasm of the likes of Fr Rice, I truly despair of the state of my former school.
Fr. Patrick Rice S.J. was certainly an educator who gave us an all round formation, he taught physics however.
Since the subject discussed here is biology, I would like to honourably mention Dr. Vella who was a gentleman and who was our biology teacher in the 80s, what a pity his legacy was not held.
No one who uses the word “effect” instead of “affect” should be teaching anyone anything.
I taught at Saint Aloysius’ College for many years. This incident happened after I left my teaching post.
The College had a system of Heads of Department. Each member of teaching staff pertaining to a department had to show the exam paper to the head of that department so that it could be examined for any faults or irregularities.
I knew the head of the Department of Biology. He was a gentleman, a true gentleman. However, I think that by the time Mr. Taliana was teaching there, this other teacher had resigned because he had reached pension age.
In all probability, it was Mr. Taliana who took over as Head of Department. Ergo, the unethical questions and references in his exam paper.
How can anyone in his right mind defend such a person. Shocking paper. If it were to happen in my child’s year I would report to the highest levels in order to ensure that this person is banned from ever teaching again. Now that this is in the open the education authorities must take action.
If you zoom into the questions in the previous section of the test paper, you see reference to “libido” and “pleasurable”. These biology lessons must have been a lot of fun.
Utterly disgusting.
There might not be an ‘I’ in team, but there is definitely a ‘vain tit’ in Vincent Taliana.
he’s not the only teacher unfortunately……i think that this is just the beginning
Is this the real Malta too? Were it not for this blog — love it or hate it — I’d never have realized I was so much out of touch with reality. At my age, who can blame me for living in a time-warp?
Vince Taliana must be having one hell of a happy weekend.
I had biology at Ordinary and Advanced Level. My teachers never set papers with questions like these. Such questions were never present in papers I worked out, whether set by London, AEB or the University of Malta.
These questions reflect a twisted mind (forget the grammar…..).
You do not set such questions unless you are a graduate of the University of X-hamster.
I dont believe that this was written by him you fuckin liar what proof is there that it belongs to him get a life you whore
How interesting that you should say that. You recognise that the exam paper is perverse. What you don’t recognise is that it was written by a pervert whom you think of as Mr Nice Guy.
The Jesuits at St Aloysius College did what the Catholic Church did with its paedophile clergy before Ratzinger came on the scene.
They allowed Taliana to be recycled within the education system.
If they had listened to their conscience, they would have made sure he never came within a kilometre of a child ever again. That is assuming they have a conscience, of course.
Don’t trust people who say:
‘If God forgives = Man should forgive’
or
‘Everyone deserves a second chance’.
Mr taliana was my biology teacher and was actually a great teacher who covered all the syllabus he made me live biology 1997 was a long time ago ..I have to admit completely over the top and totally inappropriate but it’s been a long time
Quite apart from your non sequiturs, what on earth do you mean by “he made me live biology?”
This man should be immediately arrested and brought to justice.
Lock him up now.
What I didn’t quite understand is whether the named pupils were, in actual fact, affected by those conditions.
It’s one thing if he just made up something humiliating to ruin their scholastic lives, but if those statements were accurate, how would their teacher have known such intimate details unless by wholly inappropriate means?
In such an eventuality, a criminal investigation should have been launched against this man and the school, by not reporting him to the authorities, could be construed as being accessory to such crimes.
I studied biology at school, and while it was quite a few years before Mr. Taljana’s time and a different school, and we also covered human reproduction, we never did anything so out of control.
Dwarf penises? Really? Oh please.
What about the parents of these students? Is it possible not one of them took action against this pervert?
There are so very many taboos about important things in Malta and yet what should be kept quiet is in your face.
* love biology (saying this we covered topics such as plants and innocent subjects ) he shouldn’t be allowed to teach full stop
Hawn xi skola suret in-nies fejn nista nibghat lit-tfal? Kulhadd qed jarma bil-hamalli li qas tajbin biex joqoghdu maqlufin gewwa.