The number of educators and non-teaching staff employed in 2022 and 2023 increased by 3.1 per cent over the previous academic year, according to national data published on Friday.
Of the 20,161 personnel working in formal education, 10,336 were in teaching and academic roles while 9,825 were in non-teaching and administrative roles.
The majority - or 70.4 per cent - were women, the National Statistics Office said.
Classroom teachers and academic staff
Classroom teachers and academic staff in pre-primary to tertiary education institutions during the academic year 2022-2023 increased by just one per cent.
The increase was driven by a rise in academic staff within the tertiary level education (five per cent compared to the previous academic year).
A quarter of all teaching and academic personnel were employed at tertiary level.
The largest share of teaching personnel were women (66 per cent).
Full-time teachers accounted for 81.8 per cent of the total. When comparing with the previous academic year, non-Maltese classroom teachers and academic staff increased by 17.1 per cent.
In all levels of education below the tertiary education level, the percentage of female teaching and academic staff was higher than their male counterparts. However, in the tertiary level, the percentage of male academic staff was higher than that registered for females, standing at 61 per cent of total academic personnel.
More than half of full-time classroom teachers and academic staff were engaged in lower secondary, upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education (52.4 per cent of full-time classroom teachers and academic staff).
The majority of part-time classroom teachers and academic staff were engaged in tertiary education (85 per cent).
During the academic year under review, 16 per cent of all teaching staff were aged between 30 and 34 years, followed by the 40 to 44 years age bracket, at 15.6 per cent.
The largest proportion of non-Maltese classroom teachers and academic staff were recorded in private institutions – where 40.3 per cent of classroom teachers and academic staff were of foreign citizenship.
The overall pupil-teacher ratio stood at nine pupils per teacher: the highest ratio was recorded in private schools at 12 pupils per teacher, while the lowest ratio was in state schools at 8.1 pupils per teacher.
Non-teaching staff
During the academic year 2022-2023, the total number of non-teaching staff in education amounted to 9,825 - an increase of 5.3 per cent when compared to the previous academic year.
Women represented 75.1 per cent of the total non-teaching staff. More than half of the non-teaching personnel were so-called teacher aides, totalling 4,998, or 50.9 per cent of all non-teaching staff.
Furthermore, there were 300 research assistants and 408 persons working in other pedagogical, health and/or social support.
More than a third of teacher aides were aged between 30 and 39 years with the majority (67.1 per cent) being engaged in state-run institutions.
About two in every five teacher aides were engaged in primary education (43.4 per cent of teacher aides).
The total number of people engaged in management and higher-level management roles stood at 1,482 - registering an increase of 16.1 per cent when compared to the academic year 2021-2022.