Girls may do better than boys at school but Malta still has the highest rate of females in the EU who do not pursue their studies beyond compulsory schooling, a study has found.
The study, Gender Differences in Education Outcomes, shows 32.9 per cent of Maltese girls are early school leavers, that is, they have at most lower secondary education and are not in further training. This compares badly to the EU average of 13.2 per cent.
The level of Maltese boys who do not pursue their studies stood at a higher 41.1 per cent but this figure is surpassed by Portugal, while the EU average is 17.2 per cent.
Early school leavers often face difficulties finding employment and continuing their education.
Carried out by Eurydice - a network of European educational systems - the study shows Maltese girls are performing better than boys across the whole educational system, from primary level up to university; a trend witnessed across the EU.
Girls are also performing better than their male counterparts in both primary and secondary levels. The study shows the number of male repeaters is almost twice that of girls at both primary and secondary levels.
Females are also deciding to continue their education beyond compulsory level (fifth form) in much bigger numbers than males.
According to the EU study, females dominate the education courses at university level with almost 78 per cent of all graduates being females. On the other hand, only 28.7 per cent of engineering graduates were girls.
"Malta has been making rapid progress over the past years and the number of students deciding to further their studies beyond secondary education is increasing at a fast pace," an EU official said.
"However, Malta and Portugal are still far from attaining the same educational levels of the EU average and much more needs to be done to encourage more students to continue studying. Vocational education is crucial in this aspect and we are noticing various efforts in Malta to boost this sector," he added.
On an EU level the study shows that with few exceptions, all European countries have, or plan to have, gender equality policies in education. The primary aim is to challenge traditional gender roles and stereotypes.
Although in Malta gender equality is not laid down as one of the main goals in primary education legislation, it is regarded as an important overarching principle of the compulsory school curriculum.
The study also shows that across the EU, girls usually obtain higher grades and pass rates in school-leaving examinations than boys, while boys are more likely to drop out of school or repeat school years.
Boys are more likely to be poor performers in reading while girls are more likely to be low achievers in mathematics in around one third of European education systems.