When the national Secondary Education Certificate (SEC)
examination system was established in Malta in 1994 as an alternative to the
General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level (GCE O-Level) offered by
English examination boards, the opportunity was taken to promote equity among
candidates of different attainment levels, gender and social backgrounds. The
measures included the setting of examination papers at different levels; the
introduction of an element of school-based assessment in several subjects;
relatively low examination fees; avoidance of cultural and gender bias in the
examination papers, and restriction of registration to "those candidates who were
either in the final year of compulsory schooling or aged 16 or over. These
measures were expected to attract candidates with a wider range of abilities and
social backgrounds than those sitting for the GCE examinations, and to avoid
cultural and gender bias. These targets had to be reached against a background
of scepticism about the worth, credibility and viability of examinations set by a
local examination board when compared to the prestigious GCE examinations set
by well-established English examination boards. This paper evaluates the results
of the first three years of operation of the SEC examination in order to gauge its
impact on equity. The analysis is based on examination statistics, examiners'
reports and comments on each of the measures. Access and performance in six
major subjects (Maltese, English, Mathematics, Physics, and Italian) are
analysed by gender and type of school. Some conclusions are offered about the
influence of examinations on promoting equity in an intrinsically inequitable
education system.peer-reviewe
