Over 50% of primary students obtain satisfactory results in benchmark exams

Half of the candidates who sat for the 2013 end-of-primary benchmark exams scored 77 marks or more in Maltese, 70 or over in English and at least 75 in Mathematics.

Candidates who sat for these examinations are due to receive their results today.

The benchmark examinations were held during the last week of May and the first week of June and were taken by Year 6 students in 61 state schools, 19 church schools and eight independent schools.

A total of 3,595 children sat for the assessments - 92% of the whole cohort of children in Year 6. These comprised 1,701 (47%) boys, and 1,894 (53%) girls.

In both Maltese and English, candidates were assessed in speaking, listening comprehension, reading comprehension and writing.

Meanwhile, the Mathematics assessment comprised a mental work component and a written component, which carried 20 and 80 marks respectively.

As in previous years, some students were given access arrangements when sitting for the exams. This year, two additional access arrangements were introduced: reading assistance in the reading comprehensions for Maltese and English; and a scribe to write illegible words in the writing components.

A total of 320 children got reading assistance, while 96 had a scribe.

Each Benchmark script was marked by two independent markers. A total of 124 markers (45 for Maltese, 53 for English and 26 for Mathematics) were involved in this exercise.

The results were sent to schools during the first week of July and they will be sent to all candidates today.  The results include the marks that the candidate scored in the different components of the three subjects in the Benchmark, as well as the national medians for each component and for each subject.

This will to enable parents to compare their child's performance in each subject with the national median.

A number of meetings on the Benchmark were held in Malta and Gozo with parents, teachers and heads of school.