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Having taken note of the accusations levelled at certain schools in the articles appearing on page 1 of MaltaToday of the 17 and 24 October 2004, we the Heads of St. Albert the Great College, St Aloysius College, St Augustine College, St Dominic Savio College, St Elias College, St Michael School, St Paul’s Missionary College, the Archbishop’s Seminary (Malta), the Seminary (Gozo) and the Bishop’s Conservatory (Gozo) declare that:
The students in Form 1 in our schools were admitted according to their ranking in the Common Entrance Examination and according to their (to their parents’) choice; the only exception being entrance on grave humanitarian criteria as stipulated in the published regulations. The results of all students in the common examination are published and each student has the right for a revision of paper by a fresh panel.
We have never received directly or indirectly any monetary or other gifts “to push Church secondary school entrants up the admission list” nor are we aware of any such case. If MaltaToday is aware of any such case, we are prepared to hold an investigation by an independent body.
We did not create vacancies/classes beyond Form 1 as alleged in the articles; since government regulations stipulate that from Form 3, there cannot be more than 25 students per class, as against a maximum of 30 students in Forms 1 and 2, it is usually necessary to make the relative adjustments at this stage; the criteria for admittance of any new entries in Form 3 is based on the results of a purposely made examination.
Dr Joe Zammit Maempel
Valletta
Editorial note: This newspaper has made it expressly clear that the above-mentioned schools, including De Le Salle College, will be making 474 places available in 2005, all subject to the common entrance exam. This confirms that entry into these schools is governed by established criteria.
MaltaToday has confirmed the existence of abuses in Church schools from communications sent to Church school heads from the Archbishop’s delegate Fr Dominic Scerri confirming that primary schools had not been publicising vacancies, and that schools had demanded specific sums of money “as if by right” when these should be free donations.
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