Malta still has the second highest rate of early school leavers in the EU amounting to 20.8 per cent of 18-to-24-year-olds who are leaving school without the necessary skills, according to an EU report published this morning.

While there was an improvement in the rate of early school leavers, Malta’s ambitious aim is to drop the rate to 10 per cent by 2020, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said.

He was speaking during a press conference held as the Education and Training Monitor 2014 report was published.

The report highlights three main challenges for Malta: basic skills attainment is poor in comparison with other EU countries; the early school leaving rate remains high’ and the labour market requires more relevant skills from the vocational education and training (VET) system.

The report shows that the education budget in Malta increased by 8.5 per cent - following a €32 million increase – at a time when other countries were slashing budgets.

The number of people going to university is low compared to other EU countries - 26 per cent last year when the target was to reach 33 per cent by 2020.

On a positive note, Malta has the highest rate of recent upper secondary graduates who are finding jobs with a percentage of 90.8 per cent. The employment rate of university graduates is of 93 per cent.

Mr Bartolo said the report mentions various measures taken by government that included the launch of the five-year National Literacy Strategy, the new Centre for Entrepreneurship and Incubation at the University of Malta, the Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan, the Early School Leaving Strategy, apprenticeship schemes, child care centres and the Framework for Education Strategy 2014-2024.

View the report here.