Children from affluent families have better reading skills, study reveals

• International PIRLS survey reveals class divide in educational attainment
• Independent schools obtain best reading scores when compared to less elitist State and church schools
• Malta’s better ranking attributed to change in test language from Maltese to the student’s preferred language

Basic reading skills in 10-year-old students are considerably better for those coming from wealthier families, a global study that ranks Malta 31st among 57 countries reveals.

The study also shows that students attending independent schools, where the prevalence of affluence is highest, outperformed peers in church and State schools in basic reading skills.

This information emerges from the recently published national report on the PIRLS survey - a comparative study of the reading attainment of 10-year-olds (Year 5) conducted in 2021. The global results were published in May.

The Malta figures represent a remarkable change from the previous survey conducted in 2016, in which State and church school students had outperformed those in independent schools.

But the change can also be attributed to the language used to assess students. While in 2016 the test was conducted in Maltese, in 2021 students were given a choice between the two official languages – Maltese and English.

Best reading scores for independent schools

Overall Malta’s mean reading score (515) was higher than the international average (500), which saw Malta rank 31st among the 57 participating countries.

Reading attainment of Maltese students was comparable to students from New Zealand, Spain, Portugal, Slovenia, France, Serbia, Albania, Cyprus, and Flemish-speaking Belgium.

But the report shows that students in independent private schools scored an average of 564, significantly higher than those in church schools (533), that in turn scored significantly higher than State school students (491).

This means that while students from independent schools and church schools had a reading score that was higher than the international mean score, students in State schools were nine points below the international mean.

Economic background impacts reading score

The study also shows that reading attainment in Malta is strongly related to the students' economic background.

Students who hail from eco-nomically affluent families perform better in reading tasks than those who come from more disadvantaged backgrounds.

The mean reading scores of students coming from ‘More affluent’, ‘Neither more affluent nor disadvantaged’, and ‘More disadvantaged’ economic backgrounds were 521, 502, and 479 respectively.

Overall, the mean reading scores of female students exceeded those of males by 3.7 scale points in State schools, 4.7 scale points in church schools, and 11.9 scale points in independent schools.

In all countries, female students scored higher in reading literacy than males. In Malta, female students scored 6 scale points more than males, but this gender gap is significantly smaller than the international average (18 scale points).

Change in ‘test’ language

Moreover, the mean reading score of Maltese students in the global study (515) was significantly higher than the mean reading score in 2016 (452) and in 2011 (457).

The national report admits it is difficult to gauge the exact progress made by Maltese students in these 10 years because the language of the reading test was altered in each of the three cycles.

Malta participated for the first time in the PIRLS survey in 2011. The reading literacy test was administered to Year 5 students, first in Maltese (as a benchmarking exercise) and then in English (as a main test). In 2016, the reading literacy test was administered solely as a main test in Maltese to Year 5 students, and in 2021 the language of the test was chosen by the student.

According to the national report, this change in the language of the test had “a huge impact” on the students’ reading attainment when clustered by school type.

When comparing reading attainment between the PIRLS 2016 Maltese test and the PIRLS 2021 mixed language test, the mean reading scores of students attending State and church schools increased by 43 and 62 scale points respectively; while the mean reading scores of students attending independent schools increased significantly by 152 scale points.

Independent schools more affluent

In this study, schools where more than 25% of students hailed from economically affluent homes and less than 25% of students hailed from economically disadvantaged homes, were labelled as ‘More affluent.’

The study showed that 77.8% of independent private schools (7 out of 9 schools), fall under this category.

In contrast only 32% of church schools (8 out of 25 schools) and 33.3% of State schools (21 out of 63 sch

Schools where more than 25% of pupils hailed from economically disadvantaged homes and less than 25% of students come from economically affluent homes are labelled as ‘More disadvantaged’.

While 15.9% of State schools (10 out of 63 schools) were classified as “More Disadvantaged’, none of Malta’s church schools and independent schools fall under this category.

This suggests that State schools take up most disadvantaged students, which is natural given that they are free and obliged to accept students irrespective of their background.

On the other hand, in an indication that the catchment of church schools is much less elitist than independent schools, 68% of these schools (17 out of 25 schools) are classified as “neither disadvantaged nor advantaged”.

In contrast, only 22.2% of those attending independent schools (2 out of 7 schools) fall in this middle category compared to 50.9% of State schools (32 schools out of 63).

Maltese society more egalitarian

Overall, only 6% of Maltese students were categorised as coming from economically disadvantaged homes, which is significantly lower than the international average (25%).

A third of Maltese students (33%) were categorised as coming from economically affluent homes which is significantly lower than the international average (43%).

61% of Maltese students were categorised as coming from homes that are neither affluent nor disadvantaged, which is significantly higher than the international average (32%).

The classification of students by social class was based on information provided by the heads of schools. Based on this information schools were clustered according to students’ socio-economic background.

The survey showed that 45.4% of Maltese schools have more than 25% of students coming from economically affluent homes and 81.4% of Maltese schools have less than 25% of students coming from economically disadvantaged homes.

But while Maltese schools are more egalitarian in their composition compared to those in most other countries participating in the global survey, the study exposes a sharp difference between the class composition of independent schools and that in State and church schools which is also reflected in their reading abilities.

Significantly in another indication of inequality, the bottom 25% of Maltese students scored less than 460 while the top 25% scored more than 575 on the Reading Achievement scale.

Moreover, while the percentage of Maltese students scoring more than 550 scale points in reading (36%) was equal to the international average, the percentage of Maltese students scoring less than 475 scale points in reading (30%) was higher than the international average (25%).

What is PIRLS?

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) is a comparative study of the reading attainment of 10-year-olds (Year 5). The PIRLS study is held over a five-yearly cycle and is conducted under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).

Students participating in the study are asked to complete a reading assessment and questionnaire that addresses students’ attitudes toward reading and their reading habits. The 3,865 Maltese students that participated in the PIRLS study included 1,893 females and 1,972 males.

The sample comprised almost the whole population of 10-year-olds and guaranteed a maximum margin of error of approximately 1% using a 95% degree of confidence.

These students, whose average age was 9.9 years, included all 100 primary schools ensuring a good geographical representation.

2,182 students were from 64 state schools, 1,146 students were from 25 church schools and 537 students were from 11 independent schools.