Updated with PL statement at 8.10pm

Malta ranked among the worst in Europe for a number of educational factors, in particular proficiency in reading and maths, according to a report issued by the World Bank.

Growing United: Upgrading Europe's Convergence Machine reports that over a third of 15-year-olds do not even reach the basic levels in reading and maths, placing Malta in third worst ranking, with only Romania and Bulgaria faring worse.

"In half of the EU more than 20 per cent of 15-year-olds perform below basic proficiency in reading (and mathematics), and in Bulgaria, Malta, Romania, and the Slovak Republic, a third and more," the report said.

The report also highlighted Malta’s poor performance when it comes to early school-leavers: close to 20 per cent, at par with Spain and Romania.

The PN spokesman on education, Clyde Puli, said in a statement that this condemned the youths to a life of low incomes.

“The government has created a mentality of clientelism: the idea that in order to succeed you need to know the Prime Minister or someone close to him to get a contract or a position of trust…” he said.

The Labour Party played down the report, pointing out that it had been published a month ago, and that some of its statistics date back to 1998.

It pointed out that a person who was 16 in 2016 would have had their early, primary and intermediate schooling between 2003 and 2013 when the Nationalists were in power

“One should look at the statistics before making baseless criticism,” it said, saying that the education sector on the island deserved better than partisan comments