Malta is still far from reaching two important EU education targets set for the end of the decade, even though substantial progress is being achieved every year.

New data issued by Eurostat this week shows that last year, Malta had the second highest amount of early school leavers among EU member states.

A total of 22.6 per cent Maltese aged 18-24 at most had lower secondary education and were currently not in further training and education.

Only Spain fared worse, with 25 per cent. However, in contrast to Spain, Malta still registered progress over the previous year.

The target for the EU is to reduce the share to below 10 per cent by 2020.

The other EU target – to have 40 per cent of those aged 30 to 34 years with a degree by 2020 – was still an uphill struggle for Malta which had 22.4 per cent in 2012.

This was four percentage points more than 2005 and progress is expected to accelerate if the current trends of graduates coming out of University and Mcast continue.

Malta had set itself a target of 33 per cent as it has started from a much lower position than the EU average.