Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1546635
19 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 20 SEPTEMBER 2026 OPINION future ment, compared with an OECD average of 22%. In science lessons, 43% reported that noise and dis- order disrupted most or every lesson, compared with 31% across the OECD, while 42% said class- mates did not listen to the teacher, against 29% internationally. The OECD notes that the improve- ment in disciplinary climate ob- served across participating coun- tries between 2015 and 2025 was not replicated in Malta. These are not merely educational statistics. They say something about the se- riousness with which learning is being treated. A national failure The picture is not uniformly bleak, and recognising that is im- portant. Maltese students report relatively strong teacher support. Curiosity and perseverance are around or above OECD averages, disadvantaged students show rel- atively strong academic resilience and socio-economic background explains less of the variation in sci- ence performance in Malta than across the OECD generally. There is therefore capability within the system. This is not an argument that Maltese children cannot per- form or that teachers have failed. Quite the opposite. The disturb- ing conclusion is that we have young people displaying many of the attitudes required for learning, yet the system is still producing weak and deteriorating aggregate outcomes. That makes this a national failure rather than a failure of children. We also need to stop believing that technology will rescue us. Malta's students are already en- thusiastic users of artificial intel- ligence. Some 56% reported using AI chatbots for learning at least weekly, compared with 46% across the OECD. Maltese students were also more likely than the OECD average to use AI for preliminary research, summarising texts and drafting assignments. There is something deeply revealing about a country in which students are adopting the tools of the future faster than average while their underlying reading, mathematics and science performance remains below average. Artificial intelligence makes foundational education more important, not less. When ma- chines can produce text, retrieve information and perform routine cognitive tasks, human advan- tage increasingly lies in knowing whether the output makes sense, distinguishing evidence from as- sertion, asking better questions, reasoning across disciplines and applying knowledge creatively. A student who cannot comprehend a complex text does not become highly skilled because ChatGPT can summarise it. Without foun- dational capability, technology risks becoming a substitute for thinking rather than an amplifier of it. Asking why too many children cannot read The same mistake is visible in our wider economic model. We repeatedly reach for the visible solution rather than confronting the structural problem. Productiv- ity becomes an AI strategy. Labour shortages become an immigration discussion. Innovation becomes a grant programme. Education becomes new buildings, tablets, curricula and announcements. Inputs are politically attractive be- cause they can be photographed, counted and launched. Outcomes are harder. They require patience, accountability and the willing- ness to ask why, after years of in- vestment and reform, too many children still cannot read, reason mathematically or apply scientific knowledge at the level expected of them. There is another un- comfortable finding in the PISA results. Malta is not simply being held back by disadvantage. Al- most half of Maltese students fall within the top international quar- ter of the PISA socio-economic scale, yet students with similar socio-economic backgrounds in several leading education systems perform significantly better. That should eliminate one of the eas- iest excuses. This is not merely a story of insufficient resources or poverty determining outcomes. Something deeper is happening in how we organise learning, es- tablish expectations and translate relative material advantage into educational achievement. That is why education reform cannot be another ministerial ini- tiative. It has to become a national mission extending across govern- ments. We need to rebuild from foundations: early-years develop- ment, literacy, numeracy, teach- er quality and status, classroom discipline, vocational education, different forms of schooling, pa- rental responsibility, lifelong learning and much stronger path- ways between education and the changing structure of the econ- omy. We need room for Studio Schools and other models that connect academic learning with real-world problem solving, tech- nology, creativity and work. We also need much greater honesty about outcomes. Success cannot be measured by how many stu- dents progress through the sys- tem if progression disguises weak mastery of the skills upon which everything else depends. Most importantly, Malta must change the time horizon through which it judges economic policy. A new investment project may add to GDP next year. Another thousand workers may expand output almost immediately. An- other development may generate transactions, employment and tax revenue. Improving the lit- eracy of an eight-year-old may produce almost nothing visible in next year's national accounts. Twenty years later, however, that child may be the entrepreneur creating a company, the engineer designing infrastructure, the doc- tor treating an ageing population, the researcher generating intellec- tual property or the public servant designing better policy. That is the difference between economic activity and economic capacity. We have spent much of the past decade celebrating the former while assuming the latter would somehow take care of itself. It will not. Treating the PISA results seriously The PISA results should there- fore be treated with the serious- ness normally reserved for a fiscal crisis or a competitiveness shock because, in slow motion, that is what they could become. Today's 15-year-olds will enter the labour market during the 2030s. If too many arrive without strong litera- cy, numeracy, scientific reasoning and problem-solving capabilities, businesses will face deeper skill shortages, productivity will strug- gle, wage aspirations will become harder to sustain and Malta will remain dependent on importing increasingly sophisticated human capital. There is nothing wrong with attracting international tal- ent. An open economy should continue doing so. But importing skills cannot become the perma- nent substitute for developing our own. Malta has not failed economical- ly. That is precisely what makes this moment so dangerous. Strong economic performance has al- lowed us to postpone difficult questions about the quality of the foundations underneath it. GDP told us that the present was work- ing, and we allowed that success to reassure us about the future. The latest evidence should end that complacency. Malta's greatest economic asset is not property, tourism, gaming, financial services or its tax system. It is the productive potential of its people. Every economic model eventually becomes obsolete. Hu- man capital is what allows a coun- try to build the next one. The PISA results suggest we have been far less successful at preparing today's youngsters for tomorrow's economy. And that may prove to be the most expen- sive economic failure of all. We have spent much of the past decade celebrating the former while assuming the latter would somehow take care of itself Education operates on an entirely different clock. A child entering primary school today will influence Malta's productive capacity for decades (File Photo)