Malta's state schools lagging behind in international rankings on education

Results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) have highlighted stark differences in socio-economic backgrounds of children enrolled in Malta’s three types of schooling – state, Church and independent schools.

While the survey found that the influence of socio-economic factors accounted for between 12% and 14% of performance, depending on the subject, there is also a clear trend in the performance recorded by the students from each type of school: independent schools are outperforming church schools, which are in turn doing better than state schools.

Peter Mayo, a sociologist of education and University of Malta academic said Malta’s educational system remains a “middle-class biased” one that is far from fair and neutral, and which provides one set of students with cultural and social capital, while not doing as much for the rest. 

“We ignore class as a key variable when it comes to educational attainment, at our peril. Little has been done over the years to minimise the influence of social class over educational achievement,” said Mayo.

The PISA survey is carried out every three years and is intended to be based less on memory and more on problem solving and pattern recognition. It looks at student attitudes and motivations and focuses on reading, mathematics and science as they are considered to be foundational to continuing education. 

Malta was one of 72 countries that took part in the last edition of the survey which was carried out in 2015. Overall, Maltese students registered a slight improvement over their performance in the 2009 survey (Malta did not take part in the 2012 edition). 

The average scores obtained were lower than the survey average despite Malta being the eighth highest spender of the 72 participating countries. The government invests a total of €113,000 per student aged six to 15 – roughly €13,000 a year. Luxembourg topped the list, spending €187,500 per student, while Georgia’s spend was the lowest at €11,700 per student.

The government invests a total of €113,000 per student aged six to 15 – roughly €13,000 a year

Students’ socioeconomic class was estimated using an index of economic, social and cultural status (ESCS), which is based on parents’ education and occupation, a number of home possessions that can be taken as proxies for material wealth, household income and the educational resources available at home. 

The average ESCS for Malta was -0.05, while the survey average was -0.04. Broken down across the different types of schools in Malta, the value shoots up to 0.801 for private school pupils, 0.290 for church school pupils and a considerably lower -0.375 for children attending state schools.

The findings show a correlation between this status and performance in the survey across all countries, including Malta. In fact, the survey found that in Malta, the difference in average performance between those from a high socioeconomic class and those from a lower one is greater than average. 

This trend was reflected in the results obtained by students in each subject where state schools students, having a considerably lower ESCS score, scored well below the average, unlike church and private schools, that saw an above average performance from their students.

According to Mayo, it is possible that independent and church schools generate an environment more conducive to achievement and social networking. Moreover, the fact that these schools have greater autonomy and flexibility than state schools also plays a role.

“State schools have traditionally also catered for a broader spectrum of society than private ones, and church schools to a certain extent,” he said.  

On average, Maltese students ranked 41st in science, 43rd in reading and 35th in mathematics, trailed mostly by developing countries. 

Test scores were divided into eight ‘levels’: below 1b, above 1b, 1a and 2 through to 6. Students with a level lower than two were categorized as low-achievers and those with a level five or six were considered high-achievers. 

Immigrant children were found to have performed better than non-immigrant pupils in each of the three subjects tested. This differs from the international trend, where non-immigrant students tend to do better. Immigrant students placed third, sixth and fourth in science, reading and mathematics respectively when compared to immigrant children in the other 71 countries.

 Malta’s proportion of high-achieving students was similar to the international average; however, the survey found that the percentage that were lower-achievers was greater than the average. This was especially true of reading scores, where 35.5% of students were classified as being low-achievers. It was also noted that Maltese students are less likely to persevere when faced with difficulty than students abroad are.

“Ours is an economy which has a high percentage of employees with low formal education. This could give the impression to youngsters that they can acquire jobs with low levels of education,” said Mayo, adding that there are many factors that could be contributing to this. 

The students who participated in the survey were selected randomly from 61 schools, with 1,953 coming from state schools, 1,348 from church schools and 376 from independent schools. 

Very little progress has been made since the 2009 survey, the progress made is limited, and there was no significant improvement in science and reading. A modest increase in overall performance was registered in mathematics. 

While it would be easy to blame teachers of the system, over the lack of clear progress Mayo argues that the extent of what teachers, and therefore schools, can do is limited.

“Schools do not have the power to change society on their own, they are a dependent, not an independent variable,” argues Mayo.