A fresh EU analysis of Malta’s performance in education gives a more positive outlook than an assessment published earlier this week by the European Commission.

According to this latest report, Malta registered the second highest growth rate in the EU in the past decade with regard to the number of students choosing to proceed with their studies after compul-sory education.

Although Malta is still far short of the EU’s average educational benchmarks and still registers the highest rates of early school leavers and lowest proportion of tertiary educated adults, the Commission study – Key Data On Education In Europe In 2012 – recognises that the island is moving forward.

Stanislav Ranguelov, a senior EU official responsible for the study, identified Malta as one of three member states – with Portugal and Bulgaria – that made the most progress in education over the past decade. Earlier this week, the Commission published a gloomy review about the prospects of EU member states meeting 2020 education targets.

Although Malta set itself lower end-of-decade targets than the European average, progress was limited and the country was risking missing its thresholds, the Commission report concluded.

The latest study gives a more optimistic outlook though some problems remain.

While until 2000, Maltese students continuing their studies after compulsory education stood at 40.9 per cent, in 2010 this jumped to 53.3 per cent, an increase of 12.4 per cent compared to the 2.4 per cent average increase seen in the EU.

The only other member state that managed to outdo Malta was Portugal, where the number of students continuing their studies rose by 15.5 per cent.

Despite this progress, the study shows that Malta is still at the end of the league among the 27 members of the bloc and still far from reaching the 79 per cent EU average.

However, according to the Commission, Malta’s progress is commendable and the island will manage to continue to close the gap if it maintains the current growth rate.

Further evidence that Malta is making strides ahead comes from figures related to the percentage of Maltese having tertiary education.

While in 2010 only 7.5 per cent of the population aged 55-64 had a degree, the percentage among those aged 24–29 years has shot up to 24.8 per cent.

Compared with the EU’s average, the study shows that while there is a stark difference in the 55-64 year bracket (19.1 per cent in the EU have a degree), the gap shrinks substantially in the 24-29 year old bracket where the EU average stands at 31.6 per cent, seven per cent more than Malta.

This significant progress is coming at a hefty price to Maltese taxpayers. In fact, in 2008, Malta spent six per cent of its GDP on education, one per cent above the EU average.

According to 2008 figures, while the EU was on average spending €6,288 annually per student, in Malta this cost €6,832, almost twice of what it was spending in 2000.

Similarly, the figures show that kindergarten students cost Maltese taxpayers €5,000 a year and the spend on every University student is €9,600 a year. Some 71.6 per cent of this investment goes into staff salaries.

Malta also has one of the highest percentages of students in private independent schools in the EU.

While, on average, only 2.9 per cent of EU students attend private independent schools, the figure in Malta in 2010 stood at seven per cent.

According to the study, in 2010, 82 per cent of students attended public school, 10.2 per cent frequented private government-dependent schools (Church schools) and seven per cent went to private independent schools.