Malta has one of the EU’s highest shares of people with a low level of education   ̶   so has Eurostat told us.  According to the EU statistics agency, 40.8% of the population has less than an upper secondary education attainment.  It puts us in the same bracket as Italy and Spain, with 41.7% and 20.1% respectively.  Wow, that’s not bad, you might say … until you find that Lithuania and Czechia have 4.0% and 6.0% respectively.

Those who have obtained a medium education, which comprises upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education, number 31.1% of the population.  In nearly every other EU member state, there are more people with medium-level vocational credentials rather than a general orientation, but not in Malta.  

According to Eurostat’s data, 28.1% of Maltese are highly educated, which includes people who attended universities and other tertiary education institutions.  Compare that, if you please, to Ireland’s 50.0% and Lithuania’s 41.0%.  No wonder that we cannot attract the high value-added industries which alone can help us grow economically without all the negative side-effects that we have had in the last 13 years.

The data also notes that Malta, along with Denmark and Luxembourg, stands out due to the difference of education levels between men and women, where the difference stands higher than 7% in favour of women.  At least, we have a gender equality scoremark that we can be proud of.

The 2023 European Commission report on Maltese education and training also remarks on the discrepancy between Malta’s expenditure on education and its outcome.  Malta’s spend on education and training in 2021 totalled 12.7% of total public expenditure, making it the third highest in the EU.  Despite this, Malta’s education outcomes are “still below the EU average”.

The report says that Malta’s sizeable spend could be the reason behind a 10% fall in the rate of early school leavers registered in 2021, compared to 33% in 2005, when it was at an all-time high.  Again, this is a cause for some celebration.

Responding to questions by the Press on how Malta’s low output in education is being addressed, a spokesperson from the Education Ministry referred to the National Education Strategy launched last year after extensive consultations with stakeholders.  “This strategic shift focuses on early intervention to address potential educational challenges before they manifest themselves, ensuring that resources are utilised more effectively to support students from the beginning of their educational journey.”

Initiatives include the enhancement of early childhood education, teacher training, development of inclusive education practices, vocational training to provide alternative pathways for students, aligning education more closely with labour market demands, and reducing dropout rates.”

According to the spokesperson, Government is confident that these measures will make the country’s education spend more impactful. I hope so because, looking at the EU’s Education and Training Monitor 2023, there are reasonable grounds to think that the previous National Education Plan did not yield all the promised dividends.

The data shows that, while there was progress on some fronts, we are still lagging in others   ̶   in some areas, the position in 2022 was even worse than in 2012 while there are areas where we don’t even achieve the EU average, let alone match the more educationally advanced countries like the Nordic ones.

“Education is the key that unlocks the golden door to freedom,” George Washington Carver once said. This moving education quote comes from a man who was born into slavery and ultimately became one of the greatest scientists and inventors, as well as a pioneering educator.  Maimonides, the Sephardic rabbi and philosopher, added “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

Photo: Pixabay