A serious and expert analysis into the early school-leavers problem is needed, PN General Secretary and Education spokesperson Clyde Puli said on Tuesday.
Speaking in a press conference, Puli said that while it is true that the number of early school leavers has decreased by half since 2006, the government has hidden the fact that the rate of decrease has stagnated since 2013.
It is due to this that the PN is calling for a serious and expert analysis into the situation.
"This is not a chess game or a game of numbers- we are talking about the lives of our children and the future of our country", Puli said.
Puli also spoke of the PN's concern at the high rate of low skilled workers - which stands at 38% according to a high ranking official at Jobsplus - noting that youths find themselves faced with a two-sided problem, where on one hand the education system is not ensuring that they have qualifications, and on the other side they are then faced with competition from imported cheap labour.
He said that the PN wants to make sure that first and foremost, youths succeed and have the skills needed in the 21st century so that they are not condemned to facing the aforementioned problems.
PN MEP and MEP candidate Francis Zammit Dimech said that it is important to emphasise the need for education of the highest quality and which addresses the skills gap and also looks at the opportunities of digitisation
He said that the rate of students between 30 and 34 years old in tertiary education is also quite low - Malta is eight places from the bottom - and noted that he expects Malta to fare far better than this.
Zammit Dimech said that he had closely followed this subject in his work at the European Parliament and pledged to continue working in this regard.