Number of ethnic minority students in State schools ‘not negligible’

The number of students of ethnic minority origin in State schools has increased drastically, with a study carried out in 2010 in the 10 State colleges, of which one did not respond, showing that the number of minority students, at least in State colleges, adds up to 25% of students.

The State colleges are not adequately prepared to support the growing number of students who are non-Maltese, the study adds.

The study's results were included in the report published by the education ministry entitled An Early School Leaving Strategy for Malta, which found that contrary to previous reports and statements which set the rate of early school leavers in Malta between 36% and 40%, the figure as of 2012 stood at 22.6%.

The education ministry strategy notes that the number of students of ethnic minority origin in State schools "is not negligible - particularly compared to over 15 years ago when Malta's population make-up was overwhelmingly homogeneous".

The 2010 study shows that 555 students in primary and secondary State colleges are from ethnic minorities. Although the study puts the rate at 25%, the total number of students from ethnic minorities in all State schools is probably lower, however neither report gives a global figure.

The data is limited to State schools and does not take into consideration any ethnic minority students who attend Church schools and independent schools, which educate up to 30% of all students in Malta.

In 2008, 26,711 primary students, 25,793 secondary students, 5,719 post-secondary students, 9,472 tertiary students and 6,268 vocational students were enrolled in educational courses in Malta.

Last year, ethnic minorities in Malta made up around 4.8% of the total population, with 20,086 being non-Maltese nationals, an increase of 65.8% over 2005, where the number of non-Maltese nationals stood at 12,112, or 3%, of the total population.

Nearly a fourth of non-Maltese nationals are between 25 and 34 years, compared to 14.1% of Maltese nationals.

The ethnic minority students  in the study hail from 76 different countries and from five continents.

Contrary to popular perception, the majority of ethnic minority students hail from Western Europe and only 15% of ethnic minority students hail from African countries. 24% of the ethnic minority students in State schools are migrants who entered the country 'irregularly'.

In addition, Muslim students account only for 25% of students belonging to minorities, with 54% being Christian, 8.5% claiming to have no religion or to be agnostic or atheist and 3% belonging to Far Eastern Religions. The remaining 9.5% did not reply.

Lack of resources

The research on students of ethnic minority origin in State schools underlines that despite these high numbers, the State is not recognising the importance of providing more specialised resources which would help the integration of these students in the different school communities.

The Education and Ethnic Minorities in Malta study, authored by Colin Calleja, Bernard Cauchi and Michael Grech noted that the quality and quantity of support to ethnic minority students seem to differ in different State colleges.

"While some colleges do not offer specific support which may help the ethnic minority students to integrate, other colleges quote more specific help such as 'Russian Language Teacher', 'Language Support' and 'Cultural Mediators'. Nevertheless, it seems that as a general rule specific support is still the exception. One reason for this might be the lack of funds and support from the Education Directorates, whose policy seems to treat multi-ethnicity and the integration of ethnic minority students as regarding 'students with special needs'.