Vocational secondary schools in Malta : quality of education and the reproduction of inequality

Abstract

This article sets out to evaluate the quality of educational

provision offered in vocational secondary schools in Malta. The economic

and political context which saw the setting up of trade schools in the early

1970s is described, and an account of the educational goals for these new

schools, intended to rekindle the motivation for learning in low and

non-achieving students, is offered. The article then explores the extent to

which these goals were achieved, particularly through the examination of

three related areas, namely the form (the status of trade schools as separate

educational institutions), the content (the curriculum) and the process

(classroom processes and instructional methods) evinced in these schools.

The article concludes by arguing that the failure of trade schools to provide

a worthwhile educational experience has to be located in the relationship

between mental and manual work in the wider social order, and that the

problems identified in this article could be endemic to vocational schooling

at the secondary school level and are therefore not necessarily

context-bound.