Nipping early school leaving in the bud in three steps

Sensing that early school leaving is on the rise, University of Malta academics Carmel Borg and Milosh Raykov have embarked on a comprehensive study to get at the root of the problem

High levels of early school leavers cannot be sustained over the long haul… the skill gaps in the Maltese workforce end up being filled up by better-equipped foreigners. Photo shows finance minister Edward Scicluna being shown around the Bettson offices by CEO Ulrik Bengtsson.
High levels of early school leavers cannot be sustained over the long haul… the skill gaps in the Maltese workforce end up being filled up by better-equipped foreigners. Photo shows finance minister Edward Scicluna being shown around the Bettson offices by CEO Ulrik Bengtsson.

A mechanised approach to education, low family expectations and – paradoxically – a healthy economy are all to blame for the sudden spike in early school leavers in Malta, according to a pioneering – and still ongoing – study by two academics working within the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta. 

However, the project has also identified three key ways in which this crisis could potentially be managed, with an emphasis on making the entire educational project more hands-on, and sensitive to social needs.  

Speaking to the University of Malta’s monthly research publication THINK (April 2016 edition), Prof Carmel Borg and Dr Milosh Raykov – who completed the first stage of their project last December – told a story of systemic failure, revealing that 20.4% of students in Malta decide to end their education with five or fewer ‘O’ Levels to show for it – which is double the early school leaving average across the rest of Europe. 

Equating the availability and quality of education directly to the country’s sense of social justice, Borg described the current situation as “ethically and morally unacceptable”, especially given that, according to his numbers, the majority of early school leavers come from “a lower socio-economic status”. This is just one dimension of the overall spectrum of problems that lead to chronic early school leaving, but it’s not an insignificant one, as it comes down to various powerful factors that would prove hard to beat. Among these would be pervasive unemployment within the family. Low expectations of parents also play a part. 

Prof. Carmel Borg (left) and Dr Milosh Raykov : “Many times, all of these issues are present in their own right and combine, creating dropouts and early school leavers. There isn’t just one reason”. One of these reasons, however, may be less obvious than most: such as a booming economy
Prof. Carmel Borg (left) and Dr Milosh Raykov : “Many times, all of these issues are present in their own right and combine, creating dropouts and early school leavers. There isn’t just one reason”. One of these reasons, however, may be less obvious than most: such as a booming economy

According to Borg, “Many times, all of these issues are present in their own right and combine, creating dropouts and early school leavers. There isn’t just one reason”. One of these reasons, however, may be less obvious than most: such as a booming economy. Since a healthy economy is likely to yield more job opportunities, this could in turn incentivise more students to drop the books and start filling out CVs. 

But according to Borg, this comes with an in-built ticking time bomb, because high levels of early school leavers cannot be sustained over the long haul. And what tends to happen – as has most certainly happened in the field of igaming locally – is that the skill gaps in the Maltese workforce end up being filled up by better-equipped foreigners. 

Borg also believes a systemic shake-up is necessary in order to make the educational experience more dynamic, relevant and enduring for the student – no matter what age or social group they form part of. Echoing the viral TED Talk by Ken Robinson, ‘Changing Educational Paradigms’, Borg said that “our schooling system is short-changing its pupils” by forcing them to perform in an educational model that is still stuck in the years of the industrial revolution, which effectively reduces schools to the function of “factories” – valuing conformity over any long-lasting educational results. 

“How can you speak of inclusion, social diversity, and justice when you have an educational system that is largely informed by an anti-educational routine?”, Borg said, criticising an educational approach that prioritises standardised testing and the streaming of students while ignoring individual needs. 

To this end, Borg and Raykov’s research has come up with three distinct measures to help tackle this problem. First, they suggest preventative measures, which would send professionals to communities with high levels of school-leavers in order to assess the social issues that lead to school leaving. Borg and Raykov suggest that these can be countered by high quality daycare and preschool in the community, while schools – secondary schools in particular – need to do more to incorporate vocational education into their curricula. 

The researchers also suggested intervention measures, which would aim to pinpoint those individuals at risk of leaving school – such as teen mothers – and provide them the necessary support during this delicate time, such as in the form of student and parent afterschool programmes. 

Finally, Borg and Raykov identify compensatory measures as a key part of the puzzle, as certain individuals will need to be reintegrated into the educational process. Pointing to MCAST’s foundation courses – which allow applicants with no qualifications to re-start the educational process – as the step in the right direction, Borg also notes that however, “a high percentage of the people who sign up for MCAST foundation courses are gone by the end of the year”. 

“What we cannot do is continue reproducing the same systems and hope that they will lead to a different result,” Borg said.