Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1478813
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MARCH 2022 OPINION 3 LETTERS & EDITORIAL maltatoday | SUNDAY • 11 SEPTEMBER 2022 Mikiel Galea Letters & Clarifications Malta 2022 country report on education FOR many years, MFOPD has been stating and asking for a professional evaluation of our education system with regards students with disability. Throughout these years changes have taken place to try and make our education better for our children. MFOPD was never asked to be one of the participants in the discussions for these changes. The Malta 2022 Coun- try Report gives us the true picture of the present situation of our education system. The following information excerpted from this report is for a better under- standing of the situation. • "A high rate of early school leaving, as well as low levels of digital skills and participation in learning among low- skilled adults pose important challenges, notably in view of accompanying the green and digital transitions... Education- al outcomes remain limited compared to the average in the EU, despite relatively high expenditure in the area. To tackle the challenges the country faces in this area, Malta's Recovery & Resilience Plan (RRP) envisages reforms in the areas of skills, early school leaving, adult learning, inclusiveness and diversity in the educa- tion system, and reinforced evaluation and monitoring of educational policies, while the ESF+ will support training and upskilling. Strengthening the quality and inclusiveness of education and training is key for Malta to contribute to reaching the 2030 EU headline target on skills and on employment". • "Malta's education and training system struggles with ensuring quality of education and effectiveness of spend- ing". • "Average levels of basic skills – as measured by the PISA test – are low and significantly below the EU aver- age. A large percentage of pupils fail to achieve minimum proficiency levels. While the proportion of top perform- ers has decreased since 2015, the per- centage of underachieving pupils has remained practically unchanged and is above the EU average across the entire socio-economic distribution. Around 51% of pupils from the bottom so- cio-economic quartile lack basic skills in reading (EU 36.4%). This is more than twice the rate in the top quartile — even though the rate for the top quartile is also comparatively high (24.3% vs 9.5% at EU level). Performance is strongly linked to the type of schools a pupil attends, with a gap between private and public schools equivalent to more than two school years, indicating a fragmen- tation of the education system. Learn- ing losses expected due to the pandemic risk further aggravating the situation". • "Public expenditure on education is above the EU average and increased in the last decade. General government expenditure on education, both as a proportion of GDP (5.3% vs EU 4.7%) and as a proportion of total general government expenditure (14.2% vs EU 10%), was among the highest in the EU in 2019. Given low education outcomes, this suggests some challenges in the efficiency and effectiveness of spending and highlights the need for strength- ening the evaluation of investments in education and training". MFOPD's comments on these ex- cerpts are as follow: Its full participation in the education- al reforms mentioned is a must for the full benefit of all the students with disa- bility on the Maltese islands. Students with disability make part of the cohort of the underachieving students and this through no fault of theirs. MFOPD emphasises the importance of value for the money being used to educate all the students with disability MFOPD hopes that this report is taken seriously and the mentioned problems to be professionally tackled so that the Malta 2023 Country Report will indicate improvement in the education of persons with disability. MFOPD wishes for the next country report to identify and include detailed references to the educational situation of students with disability. Marthese Mugliette President Malta Federation of Organisations Persons with Disability