60,000 pupils and over 10,000 educators back to school

Some 10,366 educational workers return to school this week to face 59,221 students in schools across Malta and Gozo.

Of these workers, 5,574 are teachers, 3,528 are learning support assistants (LSAs) and 709 are kindergarten assistants.

Students who will be attending kindergarten this year will number 8,731; primary school students number 25,860; secondary school students number 20,939 and post-secondary students amount to 3,691.

Both teachers and students will be facing some changes this year.

For the first time ever, MATSEC examinations will be free of charge, while this week marked the start of a free school transport scheme.

Some of the changes being implemented include the removal of the half-yearly examinations between Years 4 and 8, new syllabii and teaching programmes for Kindergarten 1, Year 3 and Year 7.

The Education Ministry said that its “four-year plan will also lead up to changes in syllabi that lead up to SEC examinations.”

Following the inauguration of the Institute for Education, the first BA and Master’s courses in education are also being taught for the first time. New courses are also being offered by the Faculty of Education in the University of Malta.

Two new primary schools in Marsascala and Qawra are also expected to be finished for the 2019 scholastic year, while 77 workshops are being carried out to test new subjects that could be taught at schools.