The European Commission Education and Training Monitor 2018 report provides a depressing reading to those who earnestly believe productive investment in education is the key to long-term economic and social sustainability. It demonstrates how the government’s ambition to make Malta the best in Europe is not more than political rhetoric, at least as far as educational achievement goes.
The main message of this report with regard to Malta’s educational system is that we are spending much more than most EU countries but achieving a lot less. The detailed document is rich in statistics that confirm this sad reality. Some of the more disturbing figures are that while Malta is spending 5.4 per cent of GDP on education, when the EU average is 4.7 per cent, its achievement levels as measured by various key performance indicators are among the worst.
Malta ranks in the lowest place in the indicator of early school leavers, with 18.6 per cent leaving school early when the EU average is 10.6 per cent. Tertiary education attainment levels of those aged 30-34 is 30 per cent when the EU average is about 40 per cent. Even more worrying, Malta’s 15-year-olds have reading, maths and science abilities far below the EU average with about a third of students underachieving in these areas.
The latest figures released by Eurostat confirm that the number of early school leavers in Malta is the highest in the EU, a percentage that has to be halved by 2020.
Labour MEP Marlene Mizzi, who is the S&D spokeswoman and rapporteur in the European Parliament’s Culture and Education Committee, recently remarked that investing in cultural cooperation and education is an investment in both present and future generations.
Structural reform in the educational process rather than spending more money is the key to success in this sector.
This EU report must be seen in the context of the government’s long-term economic plans. The Prime Minister boasts about his commitment to attracting new investment, especially in emerging technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence. His messianic vision is of Malta becoming the hub of futuristic technologies that will make the economy recession-proof. However, who will be benefitting from this investment when about a third of our students have inadequate basic skills in reading, science and maths?
This EU report has some positive indicators. For instance, Maltese graduates usually find a job quite early after graduating. What is not entirely clear is how many of these graduates are finding the right kind of job relating to their training. Another interesting statistic is that underachievers also manage to join the workforce earlier than their counterparts in other EU countries.
The political leadership in the educational sectors is at best mediocre. Despite some incremental improvements in certain areas, Malta still lags behind many EU countries in most achievement indicators. Nibbling at the problem of underachievement by political rhetoric and cosmetic changes are not producing the desired results. Drastic changes in the political leadership of this critical public function are overdue.
One hopes the blame for these educational failures is not attributed to the teaching profession, even if educators need to engage in serious soul-searching to see how they can save future generations from failure.
In education, when reality meets hype, reality is what matters.
This is a Times of Malta print editorial