Schools will remain closed until the end of June and next month’s SEC examinations will not be held, Education Minister Owen Bonnici said on Saturday.

Students who were due to sit for Ordinary level exams will instead be assessed by the MATSEC board based on their mock examination results, or else be given the choice to sit for their exams during a September examination session.

All students sitting for Intermediate or Advanced level examinations will sit for their exams during that September session.

A resit examination session, originally scheduled for September, will instead be held in December.  Students who need to resit exams will be allowed to begin the next academic year, pending their exam results.

The MATSEC board, which has been tasked with assessing students who were due to sit for their O Level examinations next month, will use students’ mock examination performance to assign two predictive grades. Level three will equate to grades one through five, while level two will equate to grades six or seven.

O Level students aiming for a specific grade will be able to sit for their exams in September, with their MATSEC board predictive assessment in hand.

“We wanted to ensure fairness and make sure students are not the ones to suffer,” Bonnici said as he announced the decision.

The minister said students in year 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10 will be automatically moved up to the next scholastic year.

The year 6 benchmark exercise will not be carried out this year, Bonnici said.

Schools were originally ordered shut earlier this month as part of restrictions to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The shutdown, originally due to expire in April, has now been extended to the end of the academic year.

Parents or students with questions about the revised system can contact the education helpline 25981000.

Source: Times of Malta