Maltese students rank below average in computational thinking, their ability to implement computer-based solutions to real-world problems, and computer literacy, a major international educational study has found.
The International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) surveyed over 3,100 Year 9 students (roughly aged 13) across 42 state, church and private schools in Malta and Gozo to assess how well they are prepared for life in a digital world. Students from another 33 countries across the world also took part in the study.
The study found that Malta fared poorly in both key metrics, although some students performed markedly better than others.
Malta registered the widest discrepancy between students who scored poorly and those who performed strongly, both in terms of computational thinking and computer literacy.
Students in state schools struggle
The study reveals a stark divide between Maltese students in state schools and those in church or private education.
While the latter tended to score highly on computer literacy tests, those in state schools were significantly weaker than the study’s average.
State school students also fared poorly in computational thinking but were joined by those in church schools, who also scored well below average.
Students in private schools, on the other hand, scored in line with the study’s average.
One in five have the lowest computational skills listed
In total, computer literacy among Maltese students was marginally lower than study’s average, ranking 21st in the study’s rankings. Malta fared worse when it comes to computational thinking, with only Croatia, Serbia and Uruguay registering lower scores.
The study found that one in five students “can hardly recognise the logic associated with fundamental computational concepts,” falling within the lowest tier of ability identified by the study, more than double the rate of students in other countries.
Meanwhile, just 4% of Malta’s students show the highest level of computational thinking, two percentage points lower than the study’s average.
A quarter of Malta’s students also fall in the lowest tier for computer literacy, and show “poor operational skills with computers and limited understanding of computers as tools for carrying out tasks”. Meanwhile, 2% of students in Malta demonstrated the highest level of computer literacy skills.
'Mixed but promising results': education ministry
Malta’s worrying performance comes in spite of its relatively high spending on education. The study finds that Malta spent 5.4% of its GDP on education in 2022, with only a handful of countries in the study spending more.
Jude Zammit, director general of the education ministry’s department of curriculum, lifelong learning and employability described Malta’s performance as “mixed but promising,” saying that “the results underscore an opportunity for targeted improvements in computational thinking curricula”.