The latest European Commission report on Malta highlighted how, despite high public investment in education, outcomes remain poor with major disparities linked to socioeconomic background, disability status and type of school. Early school leaving remains among the highest in the EU.

This sad reality has again been confirmed by a study conducted by the National Observatory for Living with Dignity, a unit within the President’s Foundation for the Well-being of Society. Students interviewed as part of this study felt they had been short-changed by a system that did not acknowledge and provide for their learning difficulties and let them drift from the targets set for the compulsory school system.

It seems that Malta’s educational system is based on the principle of the survival of the fittest, with the weakest students being left to wallow in material and moral depravity. Few can argue that  education is not the best tool to promote social mobility. The EU promotes the fundamental principle of social cohesion. However, this ideal is not being pursued effectively enough by the country’s political leaders.

Observatory chairman Carmel Borg argues that the educational system tracked and streamed students from deprived backgrounds early until they became a self-fulfilling prophecy. They are rarely helped in properly transitioning from home to school, given the social and cultural gap that defined home-school relations. Broken families as a result of divorce were identified as one of the main causes for depriving students of an acceptable outcome after a decade of statutory education.

It is a mistake to attribute this massive social failure on the education system alone. Cultural issues have an important role to play in ensuring that students complete their education successfully. Luckier students who find a pro-education environment at home often manage to tackle the obstacles to success. However, quality schools are just as important to address the challenges faced by students who come from a distressed background.

Education policymakers and their political masters often condemn the one-size-fits-all model of educational facilities. However, there is little evidence  that they are delivering the kind of facilities that deprived students need to overcome the obstacles they face in the form of learning difficulties and a hostile  family environment.

The Minister of Education and his team need to walk the talk and  prove they believe in social cohesion rather than merely refer to it in political rhetoric.

The country’s educational system is failing thousands of students when it should be promoting social mobility. This reality is not surprising in an administration that seems committed to short-term strategies in the social and economic spheres. This administration evidently lacks the political courage to invest in long-term strategies that will help all students, including those from deprived socioeconomic backgrounds, to achieve their dream of becoming productive members of society.

Good educational policy is not about photo opportunities to discuss what uniforms public school students prefer to wear. It is about giving all students the chance to get the attention they require from the public school system despite the traumas they may experience in their family lives.

Malta’s social problems, including the negative effect of broken families, are not unique. What is unique is that, so far, this country has one of the worst records in the EU for addressing such problems successfully.

This is a Times of Malta print editorial