Malta ranks 35th out of 45 states in child literacy study

Malta has ranked 35^th out of 45 countries that participated in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), a reading and writing literacy study conducted in 2011 among 10 year old school children.

The study's findings were presented by Education Minister Evarist Bartolo, who described the study as "eye-opening."

"We are not happy that we performed the way we did. There is a lot we can learn from the report and its recommendations not only as policy-makers, but even school administrators, teachers, and also parents can learn more about their role in children's literacy skills," Bartolo said.

He emphasised that there is a big relationship between a given child's social background and his or her literacy uptake. "Broadly speaking, the greater the social poverty, the greater the linguistic poverty," Bartolo said.

Bartolo insisted that one of the most important factors in children's linguistic development is the parents' ability and willingness to converse with their children and read to them on a regular basis, as well as to encourage a reading culture within their upbringing.

He said that teachers also have a role to play in this by actively following what children are reading, and encouraging them to read more.

He highlighted several elements from the report, most notably that:

• The language instructional time throughout a school year in Malta (181) is 51 hours less than the international average of 223 hours.

• The time spent reading as part of langue instruction throughout a whole year in Malta (37 hours) is the lowest of all countries and is 34 hours less than the international average of 71 hours.

• The time spent reading across the curriculum, including time sent on reading instruction throughout a whole year in Malta (104 hours) is 42 hours less than the international average (146 hours).

"This shows that we have a lot of work to do to make up the shortfall," Bartolo said.

He however dispelled the suggestion that the government is looking towards extending existing school hours, insisting that the solution lies in better use of existing school hours, especially at primary and secondary levels.

"More of the same is not the solution. The solution is to find ways to make more efficient and more effective use of existing school hours to introduce more opportunities for literacy skills such as reading and writing."

He noted that currently, many teachers struggle to meet the curriculum requirements. "Should we not consider doing less, but placing more emphasis on covering the basics properly?"

Bartolo added that the government will be coming up with several measures aimed at correcting this issue which will form part of a greater holistic literacy national strategy, and which will incorporate the Labour Party's free-tablets electoral proposal.

He said that strategy would be announced in the coming weeks.

Bartolo also downplayed the desirability of kneejerk short-term reactionary measures, describing these as "instant coffee solutions," and insisting that government would be studying the problem and introducing solutions as part of the upcoming literacy strategy plan.

"We should not be hasty, but we should not delay needlessly, either," Bartolo said.

He added that, as from tomorrow, the government will be meeting with school heads and teachers from all local schools to discuss the report's findings and how its recommendations could be implemented.

He also emphasised that there was a lot of work being done to improve literacy by schools and the education department in the preceding months, and said that Malta's literacy rate is likely to have improved since the PIRLS test was conducted.

Among its findings, the study also found that Maltese student scored better in English literacy than in Maltese literacy, and that girls fared better than boys with regard to reading and comprehension.

The study also found that on average, independent school pupils scored significantly higher in reading than Church school pupils, who in turn scored significantly higher than State school pupils.