MaltaMedia.com

The current reforms in education, especially in transition from primary to secondary school, has led the Church to announce various initiatives for its schools including the abolition of the common entrance exams.

Fr Dominic Scerri, the Archbishop’s delegate for Catholic education, said that from scholastic year 2011/2012 the criteria for entry to Church schools would be same as that used for entry to primary schools in recent years: brothers and sisters in the same school, then children from church homes, then children coming from families with special needs, and the rest by ballot.

Pupils whose parents are employees in church schools would also be able to attend the same school where their parents work without having to go through the ballot.

Various Church secondary schools will be building primary schools. These are the Archbishop’s Seminary and St Paul’s Missionary College both in Rabat, Savio College in Dingli and St Augustine’s College in Pietà. They will start offering primary school education as from scholastic year 2011/12.

Theresa Nuzzo school, currently catering only for primary school girls, would be building a secondary school, while some other Church secondary schools will be increasing the number of classes in Form 1 and Form 2.

This expansion project in church schools, which is expected to cost €20 million, will see a 40% increase in the number of pupils in church schools. Entry at primary level will begin at Year 1 and Year 4 until the new schools are filled. Entry will then become regular in Kinder 1 and 2, Year 1 and Form 1.