A Study of Young People following Basic Skills Courses in Malta


1
A Study of Young People following Basic
Skills Courses in Malta

• European Literacy Researchers Meeting
• UIL Hamburg
• 18th February 2008
• Charles Mifsud
• Centre for Literacy
• University of Malta

2
Aims and Objectives

• The key aims of the study were to
• a. identify the personal and educational
  milestones of the young people prior to and
  during their compulsory education years
  
• b. provide a broad account of the young peoples
  experiences of compulsory education
  

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Aims and Objectives

• c. make an assessment of the contribution of
  schooling to the situation of post 16 unemployed
  and not having sufficient educational attainment
  and certification to proceed directly to
  post-secondary education
• d. set out the young peoples perceptions and
  experiences of Basic Skills provision including
  what they liked and disliked about the course
  
• e. obtain details of young peoples
  self-perceptions and their expectations and
  desires as workers and lifelong learners.
  

4
Introduction

• In November 2005 the Department of Further
  Studies and Adult Education (DFSAE) commissioned
  this study.
  
• An area of concern for the Department is the 16
  to 18 age group especially those who have left
  compulsory education without the necessary
  academic qualifications.
• For this reason the target group for the
  research consisted of 16 to 18 year-olds who
  were unemployed at the time the study was carried
  out and who were attending Basic Skills
  courses.

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Research Methods

• The research data was collected using
  face-to-face one-to-one structured interviews.
  
• A structured interview schedule was prepared in
  both Maltese and English including a number of
  close ended questions and also a number of
  open-ended questions.
• The interviews were carried out in November and
  December 2005 by two interviewers in order to
  increase the reliability of the research process.

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Research Sample

• A sample of 50 participants was selected.
• Interviewees who were eligible to participate
  were between 16 and 18 years old that is those
  born between 1987 and 1989.
  
• Participants were to have completed compulsory
  education.
  
• They were also to be unemployed at the time of
  the interview and were to be attending Basic
  Skills Courses.
  

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Definition of Basic Skills

• For the purpose of this study Basic Skills
  were defined as Basic or Functional
  
• Literacy
• Numeracy
• Information and Communication Technology

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16-18 Year Olds following Basic Skills Courses in
Malta

• Initial enquiries revealed that there were 176
  young people aged 16-18 at the time of the
  study who were following Basic Skills courses.

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The Sample

• The variables of gender age and the geographical
  region the students came from were taken into
  consideration.
  
• When they joined their Basic Skills course all
  the young people were performing below Level 1
  in
  
• Maltese (Sisien Nghallmu Lsienna Education
  Division Malta 2006)
  
• English (Adult Literacy Core Curriculum Including
  Spoken Communication DfES UK 2001)
  
• Numeracy (Adult Numeracy Core Curriculum DfES
  UK 2001)
  
• ICT (National Standards for Adult Literacy
  Numeracy and ICT QCA UK 2005)
  
• In this respect this was a stratified random
  sample of 50 young people.
  

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Key Findings
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Biographical Details

• Fifty young people aged 16 to 18 years were
  interviewed in this study.
  
• Thirty-six were male.
• Twenty-eight participants were 16 years old (born
  in 1989) 14 were 17 (born in 1988) and eight
  were 18 (born in 1987).
  
• The participants were following Basic Skills
  courses run by
  
• MCAST (44)
• Education Division (1)
• ETC (3)
• Paulo Freire Institute (2)

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Biographical Details

• The majority of participants had attended state
  area secondary schools.
  
• Most of the participants had not obtained any SEC
  certificates. Only 2 participants had obtained a
  pass in one of the Basic Subjects.
  
• The interviewed participants claimed they had
• Special Educational Needs (9)
• Learning difficulties (25)
• The parents of the participants had a low level
  of education
  
• 4 parents had never attended school
• 6 parents had attended only primary school
• Most of the rest had attended school only up to
  secondary level.
  

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Compulsory Education Experience

• Almost half of the respondents had not enjoyed
  their compulsory education experience. The two
  most common reasons being
  
• Bullying
• Boredom as they could not keep up with their
  peers.
  
• Participants felt they did not benefit from
  compulsory education because
  
• They were immature
• They did not pay attention
• Students misbehaved and were unruly.
• The majority of participants felt they had good
  teachers and had enjoyed their lessons at
  school.
  

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Compulsory Education Experience

• The majority of participants identified the core
  subjects of English and Mathematics as their
  worst subjects.
  
• A number of participants were not satisfied with
  their school experience. They had
  
• disrupted lessons
• played truant from school
• been suspended or excluded from school.
• Notwithstanding all this more than half of the
  participants (26) felt they had succeeded at
  school.
  

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Compulsory Education Experience

• Most of the parents visited the school of their
  children only a few times (two to four visits) a
  year.
  
• A large number of participants claimed they had
  been told stories and read to by family members
  mainly by parents when they were children.
  
• All participants except one believed that
  school was important and that students should do
  their best to succeed.
  
• A large number of respondents (38) felt that
  school had prepared them well for any future
  job.
  
• A large number of participants (36) wished to
  continue studying beyond Form 5.
  

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Basic Skills (Language Numeracy and ICT Skills)

• All the respondents were struggling with one or
  more of the basic skills even more so in English
  than in Maltese.
  
• A number of participants could not read printed
  mail sent to them in Maltese and/or English and
  others could not apply for jobs as they did not
  know how to fill in application forms.
  Furthermore almost half of the respondents said
  they had numeracy problems.
• Participants had fewer problems with ICT skills
  like use of the computer the internet and the
  mobile phone. Most of them (44) could write
  messages via sms (short messaging system). Half
  of the participants had difficulties when writing
  e-mails.

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Maltese Skills
18
English Skills
19
Other Skills
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Basic Skills Course

• Most respondents were very positive about their
  Basic Skills course.
  
• The majority of participants had chosen to follow
  the course themselves for self-improvement.
  
• Almost all participants were supported and
  encouraged to follow the Basic Skills course by
  their families.
  

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Basic Skills Course

• Participants enjoyed their Basic Skills Course.
  Reasons given were
  
• the setting
• the way the course was conducted
• the small groups
• the individual attention
• the fact that they were being treated as adults
• the very patient tutors
• A number of participants compared this present
  learning experience with their compulsory
  education experience claiming that had the
  latter been more like their present course they
  would have learned more when at school.

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Employment and Lifelong Learning Aspirations

• The majority of participants wished to find a
  job. Most of them aspired to be in manual skilled
  or semi-skilled jobs.
  
• The majority of participants recognised the
  importance of life-long learning and were eager
  to further their education after completing
  their present course.

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Implications
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Implications

• This study shows that a number of young people
  who fail in primary school fail also in
  secondary school and do not obtain the necessary
  qualifications to proceed directly to
  post-secondary education.
• There are a number of young people who when at
  school struggle with all the subjects but
  especially with the basic subjects that is
  Maltese English and Mathematics.
• Some young people with SEN and learning
  difficulties have more problems in their basic
  education when at school.
  
• Family background plays a very important role in
  a childs education. Young people who lack basic
  skills often come from families with parents who
  have a low level of education and are in skilled
  or semiskilled manual employment.

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Implications

• Bullying and bad behaviour were the main
  contributing factors towards a negative
  compulsory education experience.
  
• A number of young people who were satisfied with
  their compulsory education experience were still
  lacking basic skills.
  
• A number of participants had problems with
  functional basic skills like
  
• reading printed mail and other documents sent to
  them
  
• filling in job applications in either Maltese or
  English
  
• sorting out bills
• calculating the change when shopping

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Recommendations
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Recommendations

• More attention needs to be given to the early
  identification of school failure. There should be
  a systematic identification of difficulties in
  basic skills so that early intervention can take
  place.
• It is important to look closely at the reasons
  given by those participants who felt they had a
  negative school experience to rectify the
  situation of those who are still in compulsory
  education. They may be experiencing difficulties
  which disrupt normal school progress like
• Bullying
• Disruptive behaviour
• Insufficient support or individual attention for
  pupils with SEN and learning difficulties
  
• Ineffective or absent teachers
• Unsafe or dirty school environments
• Discrimination based on gender and ability.

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Recommendations

• Schools and teachers require more support to be
  able to deal with students from socially deprived
  backgrounds and who often manifest their
  frustration through poor or negative behaviour.
• There needs to be increased awareness of the
  educational opportunities which exist for those
  who finish school without having obtained the
  necessary qualifications.
• More attention needs to be given to basic
  functional skills even for those who are still
  in compulsory education. Students who have
  literacy and numeracy difficulties would benefit
  more from Basic Skills courses and some form of
  vocational training rather than only subject
  teaching. Such programmes were offered to
  students aged between 14 and 16 years of age in
  the UK for example and have proved to be very
  successful.

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Recommendations

• Modern Information and Communication Technology
  tools like the computer the internet and the
  mobile phone should be made use of more
  extensively on Basic Skills courses. Most of the
  young people in this study felt confident using
  these tools and they claimed that their levels of
  literacy were much better when using such tools.
• The young people in this study preferred their
  present learning environment to their compulsory
  education. They felt this was more suited to
  their needs they received individual attention
  and they felt they were progressing as mature
  learners in a positive learning environment.
  There should be increased opportunities for small
  group work and individual attention in the
  compulsory education years.

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Recommendations

• The young people were eager to avail themselves
  of lifelong learning opportunities. Most of them
  wished to follow other courses in the future.
  There should be increased opportunities for such
  courses.
• Further research studies could be carried out
  about young people who lack basic qualifications
  and who cannot avail themselves of educational
  opportunities.