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14 ANALYSIS CENSUS 2021 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 4 FEBRUARY 2024 JAMES DEBONO jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt Malta's north-south divide on WHERE people hail from in ti- ny Malta remains a major fac- tor in determining educational attainment in what is possibly a reflection of the wider class divide between affluent towns in the north, and depressed localities and port areas in the south. The bourgeois towns of Swie- qi, Sliema, St Julian's and 'the three villages' of Lija, Attard and Balzan top the charts when it comes to the proportion of inhabitants aged over 15, who have attended university. Data provided to MaltaToday by the National Office of Sta- tistics (NSO) shows that Swieqi registers highest proportion of people who continued their ed- ucation beyond secondary level (49%) and with a tertiary level of education (41%). For those who 'stayed in school' beyond secondary ed- ucation, Swieqi is followed by Sliema (46%), St Julian's (45%) and the so-called 'three villag- es' namely Balzan (45%), At- tard (45%) and Lija (43%). The same order prevails for the university-educated, with Balzan (38%) overtaking St Ju- lian's (37%) in third place. Of the top 10 localities for in- habitants who continued stud- ying after secondary levbel, four are located in the north harbour region, two in the northern, and four in the west- ern region. In contrast seven of the local- ities with the lowest proportion of people with a post-secondary or tertiary education are found in the south harbour region. Bormla (16%) emerges as the locality with the lowest propor- tion of people who continued their studies beyond secondary level followed by Marsa (17%), Isla (19%) and Valletta (21%). The Census suggests that the emergence of post-secondary alternatives to university, like MCAST in the past two dec- ades, has had a levelling effect in less affluent and younger coastal and rural rural locali- ties. In fact, Dingli, Mqabba and Marsaskala top the charts when it comes to the propor- tion of people who followed a post-secondary non university course. But overall, the census con- firms a sharp educational di- vide between north harbour lo- calities, and inner harbour and southern localities which have a very low proportion of people who extending their studies be- yond secondary school. The levelling effect of MCAST The north-south educational divide is less pronounced when it comes to the proportion of people with a post-secondary level education who did not at- tend university, particularly in localities with a younger pop- ulation who have benefitted from the expansion of MCAST in the past two decades. This suggests that the greater opportunities in post-second- ary education beyond the tra- ditional academic path, have benefitted less affluent locali- ties, particularly those with a higher percentage of younger people. Indeed the localities with the highest percentage of post-sec- ondary education that did not complete a university degree are found in Dingli (11.2%) , Mqabba (9.8%), Marsaskala (9.7%) and Mgarr (9.7%). Thanks to the relatively high proportion of secondary-edu- cated respondents, Marsaskala emerges as the southern local- ity with the highest percentage who have continued their stud- ies beyond secondary school (37%). Significantly six of the 10 lo- calities with highest proportion of post-secondary educated in- habitants who did not attend university, are found in the south eastern region. But despite the levelling ef- fect of MCAST and similar institutions, southern harbour localities like Valletta, Bormla, Floriana and Marsa still regis- ter the lowest percentages of people with a post -econdary education. In Gozo, only 30% have a post-secondary (7%) or univer- sity level of education (23%). GĦarb registers the highest proportion of those with ter- tiary education (28%) while Gġasri registers the highest proportion with a post-second- ary level (9.3%). Census points at social mobility in southern regions The Census shows that the percentage of post-secondary and tertiary educated persons Northern localities have higher proportion of inhabitants who completed post-secondary and tertiary education, but MCAST has provided a levelling effect in terms of educational outcomes for depressed localities in the south