The sheer amount of controversy stirred up by the government’s controversial citizenship programme has, undoubtedly to the Opposition’s delight, distracted the public from some of the positive things this government is doing.

Among these positive developments being overshadowed by the great citizenship debate are the civil unions bill, tomorrow’s signing of a new protocol of the Church State agreement removing the Ecclesiastical Tribunal’s superiority over the Civil Courts in marriage annulments, and the institution of transgender rights. 

This week, another enormously positive step was made when the government began unveiling its reform of the public school system, including the giant leap to co-education and the option to swap religion classes for ethics classes. Both initiatives bring Malta closer in line with today’s realities and the scholastic situation of Maltese youngsters’ European peers, peers they will compete with in the future not only in the job markets but in the overall stakes of life.

But over and above these issues is basic literacy – a cause for concern that today’s education minister had continually harped on when in Opposition in the not too distant past. He is now attempting to put those words into action.

Just yesterday plans were announced to improve the country’s lagging literacy rates, a great cause for concern. Schools suffering the poorest literacy rates are to be identified and action plans to address those problems are to be drawn up, Form One students with literacy problems will be enrolled in specialised programmes to make up for failings at primary school level.

Malta, according to international comparative studies released recently, is lagging quite drastically in terms of literacy and reading.  This is certainly not a situation that the country should settle for but in all honesty the writing has been on the wall for a long time now, but we have either failed to read it, have been unable to interpret it or we have just lacked the will to address the difficult subject.

But if our human capital is the only natural resource this country has, as has been said time and time again, then the attainment of literacy by the country’s children - in this new economy of ours that values knowledge and lateral thinking far more than manual skills - is paramount to the country’s very economic survival.

Flagging literacy rates are particular to Europe and to Malta in particular. European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Androulla Vassiliou and Princess Laurentien of The Netherlands − the Chair of the High-Level Group on Literacy set up by the Commission to look into the EU’s concerning literacy rates – in a column published by this newspaper last year set the record straight on just how important literacy, proper literacy, is to economic progress.

They pointed out how research shows that if Europe were to achieve its current 2020 goal of functional literacy among 85 per cent of 15-year-olds, as well as the matching 85 per cent targets in maths and science, the EU’s gross domestic product could stand to rise by a whopping €21 trillion over the lifetime of the generation born in 2010.

For Malta, this translates into an incredible increase of €10.5 billion over the lifetime of the current generation of children, close to two years of the country’s gross domestic product.

They also cited statistics that show the ratio of low achievers in reading among Malta’s 15-year-olds stands at 36.3 per cent, considerably higher than the EU average of 19.6 per cent. Moreover, Malta has the highest reading and literacy gender gap in the EU, as low achievement being twice as prevalent among boys (48.4 per cent) than among girls (24.4 per cent).

These figures certainly do not bode well for Malta, although the country has recently registered some success in stemming the flow of early school leavers, it still remains in last place among its EU fellow member states in this respect.

At an average of 36.3 per cent, Malta was the third-worst performer in terms of reading literacy in the EU and is just behind Romania and Bulgaria. The figures are a far cry from top literacy performer Finland’s 8.1 per cent and even from the EU average of 19.7 per cent.

These statistics do not bode well for the country’s future. People with low literacy are less likely to finish school, more likely to be unemployed, especially in times of crisis, and are more likely to suffer from poor health. Poor literacy thwarts aspiration and ambition and children of adults with poor literacy skills are more likely to struggle in reading.

Poor literacy limits personal development and civic participation, increases poverty, hinders innovation, reduces productivity and stifles economic growth. Poverty and low literacy are locked in a vicious circle with each fuelling the other. Moreover, by 2020 it is estimated that 35 per cent of all jobs will require high-level qualifications as compared to today’s 29 per cent.

The writing has been on the wall for a long time now, and the current government is aiming high, and it is sincerely hoped that the government will hit the target it is aiming for. Improved literacy rates will spell out a better and brighter future for the younger generation and, in turn, for the country itself over the decades to come.