2020

My Journey Achieving Through Different Paths

My Journey is a reform aimed at offering students the opportunity to follow through their educational journey with a more hands-on approach in various vocational and applied subjects which are being offered along the traditional academic route. My Journey was launched at the start of school year 2019/2020, with over 55% of Year 9 students chose at least one vocational/applied subject.

Learning Outcomes Framework

Following the introduction in school year 2018/2019 of learning outcome programmes and syllabi for Year 3 and Year 7 students, the implementation of the learning outcomes programmes continues in Years 4 and Year 8 classes in 2019-2020. For these year groups, teaching is now more student centred and all activities set in class are intended to achieve the learning outcomes for that particular year programme. Students are now being continually assessed even more so since mid-year exams for Years 4 to 9 have been discontinued. At the end of each term, parents of Year 3 and Year 4 students will receive feedback on their children’s achievement. On the other hand, Year 7 and Year 8 students will receive an assessment mark at the end of the second and third terms and an examination mark at the end of the school year.

Tiny Teen Cafe in primary schools

The Directorate for Learning and Assessment (DLAP) within the Ministry for Education and Employment organises the Tiny Teen Science Café across a number of primary schools. This initiative is intended to engage young primary students and their parents/guardians in informal discussions on STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)  and STEM careers that are moderated by professionals from a range of STEM fields. The informal encounters prompt young students and their parents/guardians to become familiar with careers in software engineering, coding, artificial intelligence, food science, neurotechnology, healthcare and astronomy among others.

STEM campaign

In November 2020, the Directorate for Learning and Assessment (DLAP) within the Ministry for Education and Employment launched the STEM Campaign entitled START STEM.  The campaign targets students, parents and the general public and aims to engage more students in STEM subjects and careers.

Guidelines on the weight and carriage of schoolbags

In October 2020, the Ministry for Education and Employment published a set of guidelines for students, parents and teachers, on the weight and carriage of schoolbags. The publication of these guidelines was the result of the Government’s electoral manifesto, which stated that weight of schoolbags needed to be reduced.

School closure in response to the Covid-19 pandemic

In February 2020, the MEDE in collaboration with the Ministry for Health (MFH), issued two circulars informing parents and legal custodians about COVID-19 with information on protection measures that minimise the spread of respiratory infections. On 13 March 2020, Malta closed all education institutions, from childcare centres to tertiary education institutions. Closure was initially set until 20 March but was further extended. In April MEDE, in collaboration with the MFH, announced that schools and education institutions would remain closed until the end of academic year 2019-2020.

In a prompt response to the extraordinary situation, the Ministry for Education and Employment (Malta) coordinated a holistic and systemic plan of actions covering all levels of education from childcare to tertiary education as well as lifelong learning within the context of the Ministry’s Framework for Education Strategy for Malta 2014-2024. This coordination was led by the Ministry in collaboration with all major stakeholders including trade unions, associations of education institutions, parents, students and employees.

While the priority was student and school staff wellbeing, a close second priority was ensuring that students would progress in a planned manner to the next stage of their educational journey. For this reason, primary and secondary school pupils could progress to the next year albeit not having sat for their annual examinations. Students in the final year of secondary education (grade 11), had their national examination (Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) examination) cancelled due to the COVID-19 emergency. Instead, the MATSEC Board (the national assessment body) carried out a predictive assessment, based on the students’ mid-year examinations, which were organized by schools in February 2020.

Online teaching and learning and activities were provided online during the period in which schools and other educational institutions were shut down. This transition was facilitated by the availability of an IT infrastructure network and educational software, both on a national and educational institutions level. The Ministry for Education and Employment (MEDE) provided support for educators, students and parents to facilitate distance learning. Related initiatives included online support, helplines, webinars and distribution of training material. A total of  262 laptops were provided to educators, while over 500 webinars were organised for school management teams and educators. A set of detailed Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) covering all cycles in the education sector were published and regularly updated. During this period, parents and educators were provided with free online courses in order to improve their skills which attracted over 4,000 participants. 

Several literacy and reading programmes were shifted online and on television. Around 800 hours of literacy and reading sessions were provided online weekly. These included the Reading Recovery Programme which is a one-to-one daily literacy intervention programme conducted by the National Literacy Agency in collaboration with the University College London for Year 2 students struggling with reading and writing. This programme provided one-to-one communication/live sessions with pupils online at least twice weekly. Other programmes provided by the National Literacy Agency were Aqra Miegħi/Read with Me, a free online Early Literacy Programme for children aged 0 to 3 which reached a weekly audience of 22,000 persons; Seħer l-Istejjer/ The Magic of Stories, is a family literacy programme intended for children of 4 to 6 years and their parents or caregivers which reached a weekly audience of 9,915 persons; Gost il-Qari/The Pleasure of Reading is a programme aimed for children between the age of 7-11 years and their parents or caregivers. Reaching a weekly audience of around 600 persons; Għidli Storja/Tell me a Story is an online storytelling programme targeted to Year 5 primary students to improve their oracy, listening and comprehension skills through stories, storytelling and oracy-based activities; ‘Naqraw Flimkien / Let’s Read Together a television programme produced by the National Literacy Agency and the Public Broadcasting Services to further promote reading among young children.

In line with the Inclusive Education in Schools: Route to Quality Inclusion policy,  MEDE introduced a number of measures specifically targeting the vulnerable and disadvantaged students who could not benefit from the online resources including:

- Free school lunches for children benefitting from Scheme 9^[1] continued to receive lunch at home during the period of school closure, with over 25,000 lunches distributed;

- Free internet service supplied to vulnerable students;

- Loan of personal computers, laptops and tablets

An agreement reached between MEDE and the Independent Schools Association (ISA) and the majority of independent schools which are not ISA members provided the following initiatives:

• MEDE kept paying the salaries of Learning Support Educators on a monthly basis;
• Educators will receive an €800 wage subsidy as they continue to provide online learning;
• A decrease in school fees by at least 35% for parents during the period when classes are held online;
• Commitment by schools that no student will lose their place, even if parents cannot afford to pay the school fee because of changes to their economic situation.

Government kept paying the contribution to childcare centres during the period of closure. A condition was imposed on childcare centres not to terminate the employment of staff, who were encouraged to hold online activities while keeping contact with parents during the period in which child care centres were closed.

Teleskola

A user-friendly website, Teleskola, was launched to provide a digital learning platform, including learning resources, online recorded lessons and other tools, which is available free of charge at point of use. The website is updated at regular intervals and it currently contains over 250,000 pages. and over served per month. Each month, Teleskola is accessed by over 45,000 learners who are provided with 5,000 hours of online lesson time.

Planned reopening of education establishments

The Ministry for Education, together with the Ministry for Health, developed a plan to open education establishments in a staggered manner, notably through:

• Reopening child day care facilities in June 2020, on the basis of the Guidelines for Child Care Centres​ (25 June 2020);
• Reopening summer schools and non-compulsory educational establishments in July 2020;
• Reopening of kindergartens in October 2020, as per Advice and Guidelines to the Educational Sector​​ for the Re-opening of Kindergartens in Malta ​​(September 2020);
• Reopening of primary and secondary schools, in line with the Advice and guidelines to the educational sector for the re-opening of primary and secondary schools in Malta (September 2020). This required schools to implement more than 50 measures related to logistics and operations. Measures include increased cleaning of all premises, maintaining a minimum distance of 1.5m between students, mandatory wearing of facemasks, limiting the number of people who mix and enforcing the policy of staying home if unwell for both students and staff members. The reopening of compulsory education was based on a framework comprising five possible scenarios, to ensure that the education sector would be prepared for any eventual scenario brought about by COVID-19. In the summer months, syllabi for primary and secondary school were revised in reflection of these five possible scenarios;
• Reopening of post-secondary and tertiary education, on the basis of the Advice and Guidelines to the Educational Sector for the Re-opening of Post-Secondary Schools and Institutions in Malta​ (September 2020)​
• Reopening of Klabb 3-16 in October 2020, an afterschool and homework club operated in several state primary schools.

Maria Bambina and St Joseph Club

Two centres, namely the Maria Bambina and St Joseph Clubs, were opened for students who attend nonstate school which had to change their attendance schedule to reduce the school population in order to adhere to the Advice and guidelines to the educational sector for the re-opening of primary and secondary schools in Malta. Children attending one of these Clubs can engage in remote learning organised by their school in a supervised and safe place.

Reopening of post-secondary and tertiary institutions 

Post-secondary and tertiary institutions re-opened in Quarter 4, 2020. These institutions adopted multiple approaches to lecture delivery, physical, online and hybrid options. First Year students were given the priority for in-person lectures in order to give them the opportunity to experience campus life first-hand, to meet their lecturers and to establish contact with their peers. Study-units which require the use of labs and clinics will continue to take place on campus or other venues as applicable. MCAST, the main vocational institution is undertaking regular monitoring visits in enterprises from the school’s apprenticeship and work-based learning department to ensure health and safety guidelines are being respected.

Changes to SEC syllabi

At the request of MEDE, MATSEC updated the Secondary Education Certificate syllabi for 2022 and 2023. This update will be based on a data-gathering exercise on what has been covered in Year 9 of the past scholastic year (2019/2020) and what is being taught in Years 9 and 10 during scholastic year 2020/21. MATSEC syllabus panels did not incorporate practical work, fieldwork and orals in the updated syllabi due to the COVID-19 situation.

Virtual primary school

A new virtual primary school was inaugurated on 4th November 2020. The school caters for around 600 students, who are vulnerable or have guardians who are vulnerable. It is split into 25 classes covering Years 1-6. Many of these students are currently missing school entirely, with parents allowed not to send their children to school this scholastic year due to the COVID-19 situation. The school requires that students are enrolled in it and their attendance is monitored, like what happens in physical schools, it also follows a fixed timetable covering Monday to Friday. Students use a single digital learning platform through which classwork, homework and assessments are carried out.  Contact with parents/guardians is carried out according to clear guidelines.

Malta VET Awards

In November 2020, the Ministry for Education and Employment announced the launch of the Malta Vocational Education and Training Awards for the first time. These mirror the VET Excellence Awards which are organised as part of the European Vocational Skills Week, organised each year by the European Commission and each Member State.  These awards provide a platform where good practice, innovation and excellence in VET is given a higher profile and improved visibility. Maltese awardees can eventually be nominated for the European awards. Awards are given in three categories:

• VET/Applied Student Award – This award is intended to identify a student currently following any VET programme of studies, who has excelled during his or her studies. The aim is to highlight, valorise and make visible, students with outstanding coursework and performance during the academic year 2019-2020.
• VET/Applied Lecturer/Teacher/Trainer Award – This award is intended to identify a VET teacher/trainer/lecturer who has excelled in improving the VET learning experience or has contributed to innovative approaches to VET learning.  The aim of this award is also to recognize the efforts and initiatives taken in teaching VET subjects (in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic).
• Training at Work Award – The aim of this award is to valorise good practices of professional learning within enterprises for their respective employees in 2019.This award includes any type of internal and external, knowledge-based or practical training organized by the employer, including online, on-the-job, blended, classroom-based, etc. including also non-accredited training.