Malta

Erasmus+ project: group mobility of pupils. 

GCHSS Naxxar, Malta

Going on Erasmus is a unique experience, which allows you to travel, to make new friends, to get to know new cultures and to broaden your horizons.

The Erasmus+ project we took part in took place in Malta from 26 January to 4 February 2023. It was a wonderful experience, thanks to which we were able to discover and appreciate a culture different from ours, remaining fascinated by the beauty of the island, whose memories we will surely carry with us. Thanks to the guidance of the Erasmus+ coordinator of the Maltese school who welcomed us, we were also able to learn more about the history of Malta and its cities, which allowed us to better understand the influence exercised by foreign populations that dominated the nation.

We attended the "Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary School", located in Naxxar, a small town near Valletta, from which we were able to move comfortably and visit the other neighbouring cities.

During those days, we were able to observe the differences between the Maltese school system and the Italian one through the lessons we  attended, which included chemistry, math, environmental science, biology, english, music and art. First of all, we were surprised by how the school was organized, because it was divided into various blocks between which the students and the teachers moved, changing classrooms every hour.

The students also followed a peculiar timetable: the number of lessons they had to attend indeed changed depending on the day of the week. However, the school was open from 8:15 to 15:05 and the concept of "class" as we know it was not present, since the students were divided into the various courses and found themselves with different classmates based on the lesson they were following. The school offered two levels of difficulty and to access them was necessary an exam and the subjects were chosen by the students who, in fact, could customize their study path in view of their future work. Also, the students attend this school because they want to go to university afterwards, so they were very focused on their goals and this also affected their relationship with the teachers. Another crucial difference concerns the autonomy of the students, who could leave school if their teacher was absent, or if they had a free hour, and then return and attend the following hour. Students could even spend their spare time in the library, which offered a wide range of books, even in other languages, or in the canteen, where a talented deejay entertained them during lunch-breaks. Besides, teachers made personalized textbooks for their students, who would later buy them from the school stationery store. These textbooks contained only those specific topics that the students would need to pass their exams, and they are therefore very useful and surely handier than our textbooks.

Although we noticed a lot of differences between our school and the one we visited, we had a great time there and we will always be thankful to our teacher, to the maltese teachers, to their head of school, and to the Erasmus+ Project because it allowed us to have the time of our lives!

 Emma Di Rocco, Mimosa Caprioli, Silvia Grasso, Alexandra Hulpan, Flavia Mariani