Malta's latest PISA results should give us serious cause for reflection. In the OECD's 2025 assessment, 48% of 15-year-old students in Malta failed to reach minimum proficiency in reading, 44% in mathematics and 37% in science. Performance declined from 2022 and remained below the OECD average in all three subjects.
Yet Malta's broader education statistics appear encouraging. The European Commission reports that tertiary attainment among 25- to 34-year-olds rose from 31.9% in 2015 to 46.9% in 2024, exceeding the EU's 2030 target of 45%. Early school leaving has also fallen, while MCAST and the Institute of Tourism Studies have widened opportunities beyond traditional university education.
There is, however, another dimension to the graduation figures. Of the 6,210 people graduating from tertiary programmes delivered from Malta in 2024, 2,136 (34.4%) were foreign nationals, according to the National Statistics Office. Internationalisation benefits Malta, but we do not know how many of these graduates attended Maltese schools earlier in life. Moreover, the share of foreign nationals among new graduates is not the same measure as the tertiary-attainment rate among residents. Neither figure tells us, by itself, whether children educated locally are acquiring stronger foundations.
Participation, after all, is not synonymous with learning. The value of a qualification depends on whether assessment reliably demonstrates that students have acquired the expected knowledge and skills. The Malta Further and Higher Education Authority (MFHEA), through accreditation and external quality assurance, plays an essential role in safeguarding standards. But institutions must also ensure that quality assurance goes beyond procedural compliance to meaningful student achievement.
PISA makes that distinction difficult to ignore. It examines the ability of 15-year-olds to apply reading, mathematics and science to practical problems, rather than counting certificates. These skills underpin employment, independent judgement and lifelong learning. Socioeconomic inequalities remain relevant: students from more advantaged backgrounds continue, on average, to outperform their disadvantaged peers. Better early support, literacy and numeracy teaching are therefore essential.
Against this backdrop, the government's discussion of a new secondary vocational school is worth welcoming cautiously. Malta's former trade schools offered practical skills but also risked separating students according to perceived academic ability. A modern vocational school could motivate students whose strengths lie in applied learning, provide routes into skilled work and build on the experience of the Alternative Learning Programme.
The danger is if vocational education comes to be seen as a destination for students struggling in mainstream schooling rather than a positive choice. Moving a pupil who has difficulty reading or mathematical calculations to another school will not, on its own, overcome those difficulties. Vocational students need strong literacy and numeracy too, and their qualifications must allow progression to further and higher education. Young people should not be confined to a narrow career pathway at 13 or 14.
Malta deserves credit for expanding educational opportunities. But the real test of progress is not simply how many people graduate or how many pathways exist. It is whether every pathway equips young people, whatever their background, with the skills and opportunities to succeed.
Dr Damian Spiteri Ph.D. is an academic with an interest in education. The views expressed are his own.