How Academically Demanding Are Schools in Malta?

How academically demanding is compulsory education in Malta, and what do the PISA, PIRLS and TIMSS studies tell us about the performance of Maltese students?

When I help my children with their homework or talk to them about what they are currently learning at school, I am repeatedly surprised by how many things they do not know. Sometimes it is maths, at other times science, history or general knowledge. I often feel that we learnt more at their age, moved through the material faster and were expected to develop a deeper level of knowledge.

However, when I started talking to other mothers from different countries, I realised I was not alone in this experience. They also felt that their children were learning less in Malta, or that the academic demands placed on them were lower than those they remembered from their own childhoods.

Is this simply the impression of parents comparing Malta’s education system with very different systems elsewhere? Or is their experience also reflected in the performance of Maltese students? To answer that question, I looked at Malta’s results in PISA, PIRLS and TIMSS, as well as the available national statistics.

How can we compare academic standards in Malta’s schools?

PISA is an international OECD study that compares the knowledge and skills of 15-year-old students. It does not examine whether children have mastered a particular national curriculum or memorised the same amount of factual information. Instead, it focuses primarily on whether they can apply what they have learnt when working with a text, a mathematical problem or scientific information.

In reading, students must not only understand a text but also assess information and recognise arguments. In mathematics, they apply their knowledge to practical problems, while in science they work with evidence, explain phenomena and interpret results.

Results are reported on a points scale and compare the average performance of students in each country. A difference of a few points may have little practical significance, but a gap of several dozen points can indicate a substantially different level of knowledge and skills.

PISA also records how many students fail to reach even the baseline level of proficiency and how many are top performers. These figures often reveal more about how an education system is functioning than a country’s position in the ranking alone.

PISA therefore cannot tell us whether Maltese students receive less homework or cover less material. It can, however, show whether, at the age of 15, they can use their knowledge as effectively as their peers in other countries.

PISA 2022 results: Malta below the OECD average

In the most recently published PISA 2022 cycle, Malta performed below the OECD average in all three areas assessed.

The largest gap was in reading, where Malta scored 30 points below the OECD average. The difference in science was 19 points, while Malta’s mathematics score was relatively close to the OECD average.

An average score alone, however, does not show how results are distributed among students. PISA divides performance into several proficiency levels. The OECD regards Level 2 as the baseline at which a student can understand the main idea of a text, locate and connect relatively straightforward information, or apply basic mathematical procedures in a familiar situation. Students below this threshold may be able to manage everyday reading and calculations, but tend to struggle once a task requires independent interpretation or the application of knowledge in a less familiar context. In Malta, approximately one third of 15-year-olds failed to reach this baseline level in reading, and the proportion was similarly high in mathematics.

Malta also has relatively few students performing at the highest proficiency levels. The results therefore reveal not only a large group of weaker students, but also a smaller proportion capable of solving the most demanding tasks. This matters when assessing whether the system supports not only students who struggle, but also children with high academic potential.

State, Church and independent schools in Malta: a gap of more than 80 points

The national average also conceals substantial differences between state, Church and independent schools. In reading, students at independent schools scored more than 500 points, while the average for state schools was approximately 423. A gap of more than 80 points indicates that a child’s educational experience can vary considerably depending on the type of school they attend.

This gap cannot automatically be attributed solely to the quality of teaching. Independent and Church schools are often attended by children from different socioeconomic backgrounds, while student selection and the level of support available at home may also play a role. The results do, however, make one point very clear: academic outcomes are not evenly distributed across the different sectors of Malta’s education system.

PISA therefore supports the general impression that the academic performance of Maltese students is not particularly strong by international standards. It does not tell us, however, whether the problem is already present in the early years of schooling. For that, we also need to look at PIRLS and TIMSS, which assess younger students.

How do younger students in Malta perform?

If Malta’s education system were judged solely on its PISA results, the conclusion would be fairly straightforward: 15-year-old students perform below the OECD average in all three areas assessed. PIRLS and TIMSS, however, allow us to look at younger children and determine whether weaker results are already apparent earlier in their education.

PIRLS 2021: Malta is not failing in reading, but it does not excel either

PIRLS assesses the reading skills of children at around the age of ten. In 2021, Malta scored 515 points and ranked 31st among the 57 countries assessed. Its result was statistically comparable to those of Spain, Portugal, Slovenia, France and Cyprus. A number of more academically successful European systems placed ahead of Malta, however, including Ireland, Finland, Poland, Czechia, Sweden, Italy, Austria and Germany.

The result does not suggest that ten-year-olds in Malta are falling significantly behind in reading. At the same time, it provides no basis for describing Malta as an academically strong education system. It sits closer to the middle of the international comparison.

Once again, the national average conceals considerable differences between schools. Students at independent schools achieved an average PIRLS score of 564, compared with 533 at Church schools and 491 at state schools. The gap between independent and state schools was therefore 73 points. Even among ten-year-olds, the main finding is not simply Malta’s overall result, but the fact that different sectors of its education system produce markedly different outcomes.

TIMSS 2023: Malta’s results in mathematics and science

TIMSS assesses how well students have mastered the mathematics and science taught at school. Malta took part in the 2023 study with Year 9 students, who were approximately 14 years old. It scored 499 points in mathematics and 501 in science.

To make its points scale easier to understand, TIMSS defines four international benchmarks: low from 400 points, intermediate from 475, high from 550 and advanced from 625. Malta’s average scores of 499 in mathematics and 501 in science fall between the intermediate and high benchmarks. These are national averages, however, and do not show how many individual students reached each level.

A score of 500 does not represent the current average of all participating countries. It is a fixed midpoint on the scale established when TIMSS was first administered in 1995. Malta’s result therefore cannot simply be interpreted as the ‘international average’.

In mathematics, Malta placed below a number of European countries, including Czechia, Sweden, Lithuania, Austria, Hungary and Finland. Its result was very similar to those of Italy, Norway and Romania. Malta scored 501 points in science, placing behind countries including Czechia, Ireland, Finland, Hungary, Sweden, Austria and Portugal, but ahead of Norway, France and Cyprus.

TIMSS therefore does not indicate academic failure either. Malta’s 14-year-olds sit roughly in the middle among participating European countries in mathematics and science. Once again, however, the results do not support the idea that Malta is one of Europe’s academically strong education systems.

What do PISA, PIRLS and TIMSS tell us about education in Malta?

The results of these studies form a fairly consistent picture. Younger students in Malta do not perform disastrously, but they tend to sit in the middle of the comparison rather than among the most successful European countries. The situation is less favourable among 15-year-olds: in PISA, Malta falls below the OECD average in reading, mathematics and science, while approximately one third of students fail to reach even the baseline level of proficiency in reading and mathematics.

These results cannot prove that the performance of the same children deteriorates as they progress through school. PIRLS, TIMSS and PISA assess different year groups, in different years, and partly measure different skills. What we can say is that none of these studies presents Malta as an exceptionally successful academic system. Its best results can be described as middling, while the performance of 15-year-olds is below average.

Are schools in Malta less academically demanding?

International studies do not measure the amount of homework students receive, the pace at which material is covered or the expectations of individual teachers. They therefore cannot directly confirm that children in Malta learn less than children in another country.

Alongside academic knowledge, Malta’s curriculum also emphasises critical thinking, problem-solving, children’s overall wellbeing and inclusion. That alone, however, does not explain weaker academic outcomes. PISA does not merely test memorised material; it also assesses the ability to apply knowledge, work with information and solve problems. Nor do the available data show whether Malta’s weaker academic results are offset by greater success in achieving these other stated goals.

The studies do, however, support the broader part of the parents’ experience: Malta is not one of the academically strong education systems. The results of younger students are largely middling, those of 15-year-olds are below average, and the proportion of low-performing students is high. At the same time, relatively few students reach the highest proficiency levels.

The concerns expressed by some parents therefore cannot be dismissed as mere nostalgia for the education systems of their home countries. The data do not prove that the cause is less material being taught or less pressure from schools. They do show, however, that the system does not produce particularly strong academic outcomes when compared with other countries.

At the same time, the experience of one family cannot be applied to every school. The differences between state, Church and independent schools are so substantial that two children living in Malta may pass through very different academic environments. This inequality is one of the most important findings of the entire analysis.