30% of MCAST students ‘drop out of their course’ – Labour

Citing an MCAST report, Labour's spokesman for education Evarista Bartolo said that 30% of MCAST students drop out of their course.

"This is the first time that MCAST officially admitted that the rate was so high," Bartolo told the press.

He said, that government was also hiding figures that showed that by the time they reach 19 years of age, the 82% rate of students who further their studies drops to 52%.  

According to the European Union's Education and Training Monitor for 2012, Malta registered the largest reduction in early school-leavers. The report praised the education's minister success in achieving an overall spend in education of 5.46% of gross domestic product, which is higher than the European average of 5.41%.

Bartolo said the report confirmed that while there were countries that invested less than Malta in education, yet they obtained higher results.

"One however cannot ignore that there were countries who were spending more in education but were achieving less results than Malta," he added.

Bartolo said that with 33.5%, Malta remained the highest country with early school-leavers who don't continue with their studies after reaching 16 years of age.

Of the 82% who continue studying, Bartolo said that 30% would fall behind by the time they reach 19 years of age, "because of the poor education received during primary and secondary years".