• The student reps clarified a number of details with Dr Bonnici, that the students had as of yet been left in the dark about.
• Any student placed under quarantine during the September session will have to sit for the resit session in December. In the meantime they will be able to start their University course on provision.
• Students who have applied for ‘Doctor of Medicine and Surgery’ and are placed under quarantine during the September session can take their exam at home in the presence of a fully gowned and protected invigilator.
• Any students who are COVID-19 positive during the September session will be considered as absent due to sickness and will need to sit for the exam in December.

With regards to the actual safety precautions set in place during the examination itself, the student reps have clarified the following.

• Temperature checks will be taken for each student and if a student shows an elevated body temperature above 37.2 degrees celsius, they will be given a few minutes rest before a temperature check is repeated several times for confirmation. If the fever maintains they will be considered as sick.
• All students are obliged to wear a mask/visor during in all common areas in the exam venue, before entering, upon exit of the exam venue and if being excused to the bathroom during the exam only. They are not obliged to wear a mask throughout the exam itself as desks will be distanced 2 metres apart and all staff will be wearing a mask/visor at all times.
• The maximum capacity of the exam venues has been assessed and a limited number of desks have been made available. Social distancing is encouraged at all times, even outside of the venue before/after the exam

Students sitting for their O’ Level exams in the September session will not be eligible for a resit, since the results according to the predictive grading were considered the first sitting.

Finally it has also been confirmed that no contingency plan has been prepared in case the COVID-19 pandemic in Malta worsens or if a national state of emergency is declared once again. This is despite the alarming number of daily average cases.

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Since the pandemic has revisited the islands in full force, the Junior College Student Council (KSJC) has been “in regular contact with the relevant authorities seeking clarifications, updates and advice on the ongoing developments regarding the impact of COVID-19 on MATSEC examinations.” However, as of yet, they have not received an official reply.

The urgency of the situation has led over 150 students to gather and send a mass of emails to the relevant authorities …

… including the Minister for Education Owen Bonnici, Minister for Health Chris Fearne and the MATSEC board. An online event was created by the students to coordinate these replies. The plethora emails sent, detailing the students’ grievances and pleas for clarity, were only met by cold and automatic replies.

Student organisations Pulse and SDM have also posted on Facebook in solidarity with the students. They welcomed solutions and suggestions by students to resolve the situation, as well as invited them to air their grievances and concerns so that they could be forwarded more directly to the relevant authorities.

Amidst the stresses that MATSEC examinations foster, students are being pelted with ulterior stress regarding their health and well-being. Their pleas for clarity are being dismissed with only a few weeks till their supposed examinations.

The post Students pleas and fears regarding MATSEC exams met with empty replies appeared first on The Third Eye.