Malta’s rate of early school leavers has stayed “stubbornly high” despite efforts to bring it down, with EU figures showing it is the second highest in the bloc.

Latest Eurostat data put the rate at 16.7 per cent in 2019, only slightly down from 17.5 per cent the year before and still a far cry from the EU’s 2020 target.

Early school leavers are defined as those aged between 18 and 24 who have, at most, completed lower secondary education and are not involved in any form of further education or training.

The problem, it has emerged, is worse for men than women, with their rate spiking to almost 20 per cent. Spain is the only other member state to fare worse.

According to the Europe 2020 strategy, which is the EU’s agenda for growth and jobs for each member state, Malta had set its 2020 early school leaving target at 10 per cent, the same as the EU average target.

The latest figures show the EU average is only 0.2 percentage points away from this number.

Last year, the Education Ministry had told Times of Malta the government was confident the targets would be met. Questions on the matter sent following the publication of the latest data have remained unanswered.

In a 2019 study, Carmel Borg, a former dean of the university’s Faculty of Education, had said that unless things changed significantly, it was “unlikely” that Malta would manage to slash the early school-leavers’ rate to the target 10 per cent.

Contacted in the wake of the latest data, Borg said that despite the investment in education, the rate of underachievers “has remained stubbornly high”.

“It remains to be seen whether the consolidation of the vocational dimension within compulsory schooling, aimed at providing alternative learning paths, will make the difference in terms of educational achievement and trends in further education,” Borg said.

On the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to all schools shutting doors for the remainder of the scholastic year, Borg said the post-coronavirus economic scenario needed to be monitored to see how young people will fare.

Generally, when the economy is buoyant and absorbing everyone, the rate of early school-leavers tends to increase, he noted.

“The situation is fluid. What is certain is Malta will not reach the overly ambitious target of 10 per cent by the end of this year or in the very near future, unless goal posts are changed,” he said.­

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