PN: Maltese school-leavers towards bottom of EU heap in educational performance

A World Bank report on the European Union has shown that Malta ranks amongst the worst performing member states when it comes to school-leavers' proficiency in crucial subjects, the Nationalist Party has highlighted.

The report, ‘Growing United: Upgrading Europe’s Convergence Machine’, published by the World Bank in March, confirms that 36% of 15-year-olds in Malta have a below-basic level of proficiency in reading and mathematics, the PN said.

“This puts Malta third-from-last in Europe - only Romania and Bulgaria place worse. Our young people deserve a better education, which gives them the skills they need to succeed in the 21st century,” the party said.

“With low-skill levels in reading and maths, young people are condemned to earn low salaries all their lives,” it emphasised, “This is more so considering that the government is bringing 17,000 immigrants a year, which keeps putting downward pressure on salaries. Moreover, the government did not bring any new industry to Malta which can offer good remuneration to Maltese workers.”

The government had also created a “clientelism mentality”, the PN underscored, creating the idea that in order to be successful in Malta, you need to know the Prime Minister or people close to him, for them to give you some contract or position of trust with the government.

“The World Bank report identifies the high rate of early school leavers in Malta as a fundamental problem,” it added.

“Apart from this report, other research published previously also shows that only 18% of Maltese educators would remain in the teaching sector if they had another career opportunity available. Despite this, the Education Minister is not even investing in the [previous] Nationalist government’s programme of building a new school each year”.

The full World Bank report on the EU can be accessed here.