Spirit of experiment : the proposed Santa Lucija secondary school

Abstract

Government's commitment to build a new secondary school at Sta Lucija is an indication of its modern direction in the face of today's needs in the education sector in Malta and of the fact that, despite the media explosion and all recent developments in information technology, the school will certainly remain the focal venue for information exchange and student interaction. In March, 1992, the Education Division of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources undertook a global audit of accommodation in state secondary schools. The secondary sector was divided into four areas: boys' junior lyceums, girls' junior lyceums, boys' general secondary schools and girls' general secondary schools. The most glaring revelation arising from this survey was the fact that whereas the average population in State-run junior lyceums for boys stood at around 800, in the case of girls' junior lyceums, the average student population was around 1 ,200. This anomaly was further compounded by the fact that private schools were serving to relieve the pressure from State schools in the boys' sector whereas in the girls' sector a reverse trend was observed, with girls from private schools at primary level moving on to state secondary schools. Among the recommendations arising from the report was the need to address the equity between boys' and girls' secondary schools with the construction of a girls' secondary school in the area between Blata 1-Bajda and Zejtun.