Thousands are failing

Thousands of young men and women are leaving our secondary schools, year after year, failing to pass their Sec exams in Maltese, English, maths, science and IT. Out of the 5,000 students who complete their secondary education every year, 1,000 do not bother to sit for any Sec exam.

More than another 1,000 fail to pass their Sec exams.

Half of our students are leaving school unqualified and unskilled after at least 11 years of primary and secondary schooling. Male teenagers are falling behind female teenagers in their education. More than half of our male adolescents either fail or do not even sit for the Sec exams in Maltese, English and mathematics. Just over 40 per cent of adolescent females who complete their secondary education fail or do not even sit the Sec exams in Maltese, English and mathematics.

This high rate of failure is threatening the future of thousands of young people and jeopardising the economic prosperity and social cohesion of our country. Education and wealth creation go hand in hand and investment moves to those countries with a skilled workforce.

This is an issue which should concern all schools as unqualified and poorly skilled boys and girls will grow into young men and women who become a problem for themselves and all others around them.

Government area secondary schools and junior lyceums should put this issue as one of their main objectives in their school development plan. But even other schools cannot afford to ignore this problem.

Unskilled and unqualified young men and women get caught in a vicious circle of drugs, crime, domestic violence, unemployment, social exclusion that is best dealt with through preventive social, educational and health policies.

Secondary schools need to change and become more relevant to the needs of the thousands of teenagers who are enrolled in them.

Years are going by and relevant syllabi addressing the specific needs of young people have still not been drawn up. These schools should at least succeed in giving these youngsters the basic literacy, numeracy, scientific and technological skills and democratic citizenship competences they need to live and work in the 21st century. The government must stop looking the other way and address this serious problem.