PISA 2025 leaves Malta's employers staring at a weaker skills pipeline

Malta's education system is now producing warning signs that should worry employers as much as policymakers. The latest OECD PISA assessment, published for 2025, shows performance slipping in all three tested subjects, with reading the most acute problem.

Just 52% of Maltese 15-year-olds reached Level 2, the OECD's minimum benchmark for reading proficiency. That leaves roughly 48% of students unable to identify a text's main idea, locate information using specified criteria or reflect on its purpose and form. Across OECD countries, the equivalent shortfall is 31%.

The damage is not confined to reading. In mathematics, 56% reached the minimum standard against an OECD average of 65%. In science, 63% hit the benchmark compared with 74% across the OECD. The 2025 reading and science results were lower than any recorded before 2022, according to the OECD.

For businesses, the long-term consequences are direct. A workforce that cannot reliably read, interpret information or apply numeracy will struggle to support the productivity gains Malta's economy needs. The slippage also compounds over time: compared with 2015, the share of low performers rose by 15 percentage points in mathematics, 12 points in reading and four points in science.

The OECD's data undercuts the convenient explanation that poverty drives these outcomes. Almost half of Maltese students assessed ranked among the most advantaged quarter of students internationally. That creates a leadership problem, not merely a social one.

Classroom conditions point to deeper disengagement. Some 43% of students said noise and disorder disrupted most or every science lesson, and 42% said classmates did not listen to the teacher. Around 45% skipped at least one entire school day in the two weeks before the test, double the OECD average and up from 35% in 2022. Bullying increased, and weekly family discussions about school problems fell from 58% to 46%.

There are positives. Teacher shortages declined, disadvantaged students showed stronger academic resilience, and most schools introduced mobile-phone bans. But these bright spots do not offset the central finding.

The sample covered 3,680 students across 46 schools, representing an estimated 95% of Malta's 15-year-old population, and met the OECD's data-quality standards. Employers should treat these results as a strategic risk and follow the policy response closely, because the students behind these numbers are the next intake into Malta's labour market.