MUT president says Eurostat figures do not depict the real situation
Reacting to a story carried by The
Malta Independent on Sunday yesterday, Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) president Marco Bonnici said the Eurostat figures do not depict the real situation.
Rebecca Iversen reported that Maltese students are the European Union’s second-least likely to take their studies further past the non-compulsory stage, according to figures released by Eurostat.
According to the EU’s statistical arm, Malta has the second-lowest proportion of students who are continuing with post-compulsory education. The report in fact showed that only 12.4 per cent of Malta’s population in 2015 continued with post-compulsory education compared to other European states.
These statistical measures, Mr Bonnici said, although correct in figures, must not be analysed in isolation as they do not depict the real situation.
A comparison of the number of students in non-compulsory education as a percentage of the population of the country is inevitably skewed by a number of factors such as age demographics and the length of compulsory education.
The real picture is depicted by analysing the number of school leavers who pursue their studies in post-compulsory institutions. A very good national statistical analysis was provided in 2015 by the NCFHE entitled Further and Higher Education Statistics.
https://ncfhe.gov.mt/en/research/Documents/Further%20and %20Higher%20Education%20Statistics/Further%20and%20Higher% 20Education%20Statistics%20Report%202014-2015.pdf
Of particular interest, Mr Bonnici continued, and this is certainly the most relevant statistical measure to consider in evaluating the educational services, is the 17-year-old participation rate in Further and Higher Education. This figure stood at 79% in 2015 with an average of 80% between 20112015.
Although updated data would provide a better picture of the current situation, it has to be observed that the main challenge of our educational system, besides increasing student intake in postsecondary institutions and decreasing NEETs (youth who are not in education, employment or training) is to increase the retention rate in non-compulsory education, he added.
According to Eurostat, Finland scored the highest with 29.2% of its students furthering their academic careers, followed by Belgium with 24.9%. Post-compulsory education includes sixth form education, higher education centres and university.
Although Malta ranks the second lowest in the post-compulsory stakes, the situation has improved substantially with only 8.2 per cent having completed post-compulsory education in 2013, a figure that rose to 12.1 per cent in 2014.
Interestingly, O level and A level results support the EU statistical report since the number of students passing their exams, which enables them to carry on into higher education, are getting lower and lower.
Statistics released by the MATSEC board show that roughly only one in three A-level students managed to get the grades needed in order to gain admission to the University of Malta.
Just 34 per cent of students got their full Matriculation Certificate this year. Out of a total of 4,106 students who sat for the May exams, 1,399 were awarded the certificate. This is in line with what was achieved in 2016, when 1,391 had managed to be awarded the certificate.
Yet, on the other hand, the number of students graduating from the University of Malta has increased by 15 per cent in just four years with 3,557 graduates in the 2014/2015academic year.