PN calls for ‘serious analysis’ of early school leavers phenomenon

The Nationalist Party is calling for a “serious analysis” of government’s plans to tackle early school leavers to determine why they “failed”, Clyde Puli said.

The PN secretary general said government’s claim that the number of early school leavers is half what it was in 2006 was deceptive.

“It is true that early school leavers are down by half but the real drop had already happened by 2013. From 2014 onwards, the progress that was being registered, stymied and became insignificant,” Puli said.

He underscored the PN’s concern with the high percentage of Malta’s unskilled labour force, which was put at 38% by a top official at JobsPlus. These workers are being squeezed by the fact that they lack skills and the competition posed by cheap labour.

“This is a problem that requires urgent action… these are not numbers but people and so let us work together so that all our children can succeed,” Puli said.

PN MEP Francis Zammit Dimech said the education system had to prepare students for the changes in the labour market prompted by digitalisation.