​Minister for Education and Employment Owen Bonnici has announced seven decisions regarding schools, examinations and educational institutions in light of the COVID-19 situation. 

The decisions are the following;

1. On Wednesday, 18th of March, the government announced the closure of schools and educational institutions until the 17th of April. Today, it has been announced that schools and educational institutions will remain closed until the end of June, which is the end of the current scholastic year.

2. Every student who is in Year 4 will progress to Year 5 and every student who is in Year 5 will progress to Year 6 automatically, in the same class he or she is in.

3. In the case of students who are in Year 6, their mark will be based on assessment. This means that the Year 6 benchmark will not be done.

4. In the case for students who are in Year 7, Year 8, Year 9 and Year 10, they will progress to their next year in the same group respectively.

5. The SEC examinations (O Levels) will not be done in the session beginning on the 23rd of April. A predictive assessment method undertaken by MATSEC will instead be utilised. This will be based on the marks obtained during the mock exams. To establish the result, MATSEC will take into consideration the students’ marks, the corrected examination papers and the marking schemes that were used.

MATSEC will then issue a certificate to successful students, showing whether Level 2 or Level 3 was reached. This certificate will allow students with the opportunity to progress into post-secondary schools. 

Opportunity will be also given to students, if they wish to do so, to sit for the SEC examinations during the September session.

6. Intermediate and A Level exams will not be held during the session starting on the 23rd of April, but will instead be postponed to September of this year. Students will be receiving timetables and all details. 

The re-sit session will be done in December. This being said, all the necessary provisions will be undertaken so that students be given the opportunity to enrol into University, MCAST or other educational institutions in the coming academic year.

7. In the case of students who are currently undergoing their studies in University, MCAST or other educational institutions, the necessary arrangements will be done so that they are able to continue their studies.

Online teaching will, of course, continue, and we encourage all students, irrespective of whether they are kids or young people, to continue with their learning and studies.