Foreign students enrolled in Maltese schools continue to increase
Nearly one in six students in compulsory education are foreign nationals - NSO data
The number of foreign students in Malta’s compulsory education system continues to grow, with nearly 16% of children enrolled in primary and secondary schools holding foreign citizenship.
Data published by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Friday shows that, in the 2022-2023 academic year, 15.8 per cent of students were foreign, up from 13.2 per cent in the 2019-2020 academic year.
While Maltese students still make up the majority of the classroom population, their proportion has declined over recent years, from 86.8 per cent in 2019-2020 to 84.2 per cent in 2022-2023 academic year
The NSO pointed out that “if the trend observed during the four previous academic years is maintained, the proportion of Maltese students is expected to decline slightly, while the proportion of foreign students is expected to increase.”
The academic year that has just ended saw a total of 51,002 students enrolled in compulsory schooling. Of these, 57 per cent of students in compulsory education attended State-run schools, 30 per cent attended Church-run institutions while 14 per cent were in independent schools.
The figures also show that student numbers grew modestly year-on-year, with around 300 more pupils at primary level and 350 more at secondary level compared to the previous academic year.