Only 44 per cent of the students who go on to study at Sixth Form finish their course, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said.

He told Parliament last night that this was a crucial period as it determined the future of these youths and this issue needed to be radically addressed. This was being provided for in the Budget.

The greatest concern for the government was the cohort of about 7,000 youths who currently were not only unqualified after finishing compulsory education but were unmotivated to work. Instigating people to enter into a work culture was not easy and the government’s priority was to ensure that this number did not swell.

While 86 per cent of school leavers decide to go to Sixth Form (of which 44 per cent drop out), seven per cent go into a job but another seven per cent, or about 300 students, neither work nor continue studying.

This number could not be permitted to accumulate so those who did not pass their SECs were being provided with free tuition to motivate them to re-sit their examinations, Mr Bartolo said.

This had brought about positive results in maths, physics and Maltese, although results were still off target in English.

Vocational programmes of “learning by doing”, supplemented by basic literacy and numeracy skills, were also having a positive impact and the minister thanked private enterprises and the army for their support.