There is very little chance Malta manages to cut the rate of young people leaving school early to 10 per cent by 2020, according to Early School Leaving Unit head Mario Cardona.
Despite measures in place to improve the education system, it would take a number of years before any significant improvement could be noted, he said.
Data issued by the statistics office of the European Union last week showed that 19.8 per cent of the population aged between 18 and 24 left school with a level of education that was no higher than that of students at a lower secondary level.
Mr Cardona noted that, while the figure would most likely not go down drastically any time soon – despite the Europe 2020 target stipulating the lower figures – this was to be expected since efforts being made were aimed at addressing the issue on a long-term basis.
“When looking at such figures, it’s not a question of doing something this year and then noting immediate results the following year,” he said.
Mr Cardona said that, when collecting such data, only those aged between 18 and 24 who had a low level of education and were not receiving any form of education or training were included.
We are reaching a group of students who could have otherwise felt the education system is not for them
In recent years, he added, the Education Ministry had been working tirelessly on reducing the figure by targeting younger students and introducing various measures to encourage them to stay in school when they got older. This meant that the results would not be evident for a good number of years.
He admitted that, while expecting better results in the future, the rate at which the figures were dropping was still rather disappointing. In the past years, there were only minor improvements with rates dropping from 20.5 per cent in 2013 to 20.4 the next year and 19.8 in 2015.
“I don’t expect major drops. I do think that we should at least be aiming for a drop of two per cent from one year to the next,” Mr Cardona said, adding that he was, however, very optimistic this would soon be the case following the introduction of the vocational subject project introduced in 2011.
A total of 787 students – 525 males and 262 females – from State, Church and independent schools this year opted to study vocational subjects. The subjects offered are engineering, IT, agribusiness, health and social care and hospitality.
“We are reaching a group of students who could have otherwise felt the education system is not for them and they would have given up. Instead, they have taken up these vocational subjects and are doing very well,” Mr Cardona said.
And while he said there were concerns that offering the subjects might give rise to some stigma, this was not the case and it seemed students were keen to try out at least one of the subjects.
“Years ago, choosing to study a vocational subject meant that was the end of the road for the student and they would only be encouraged to choose such subjects because they were perceived as lacking the ability to do anything else.
“This is no longer the case and students are now eager to explore different topics.”
He said this was the way forward for the education system, adding that there were plans to eliminate completely the ‘one size fits all’ approach in favour of more tailored teaching methods, something teachers had been wanting for years.