Pamela Marie Spiteri: "Transforming the link between school, home and the community to tackle ELET"

Presentation 10: 7/12/23
"Transforming the link between school, home and the community to tackle Early Leaving from Education and Training"
Dr Pamela Marie Spiteri, PhD alumna, ESJ programme. Education Officer (Early School Leaving), Ministry for Education and Employment, Malta.
Early leaving from education and training (ELET) is defined as those students not obtaining basic skills education following compulsory education and second chance programmes. In a number of countries, the majority of those not obtaining an upper secondary level of education by the age of 24 years are those who hail from disadvantaged settings. In many European countries, a number of second chance programmes have been developed during the last years, but there is limited amount of evidence in relation to prevention and early intervention programmes. It could be argued, therefore, that this limits opportunities to those that hail from disadvantaged settings especially since ELET indicators are well evident even from early years education settings. Working with salient adults in students’ lives could therefore support the development of capabilities and student agency in achieving a basic level of education and lowering the ELET rate, which could impact the socio-economic status of students and their community. Specific programmes can be developed for early identification of ELET risk factors (achievement, behaviour and wellbeing, chronic absenteeism, disability and learning difficulties, engagement, family disadvantage and gender). School systems can develop programmes that not only support students within the school unit but also within the home unit. I will be discussing how Malta, that had a high rate of ELET compared to its European counterparts throughout the last twenty years, has identified an achievement gap in relation to the socio-economic status of students. Parental engagement is limited and consequently a gap between school and home was identified which often impacts students’ achievement and wellbeing. This is why I have been working on developing a specific programme to target this gap - mainly the Family - School - Community - Link programme which shall be piloted in the coming months. This project has been built through feedback obtained from educators, school stakeholders, NGOs within the community, students and parents. It is hoped that through this programme students hailing from disadvantaged backgrounds will have an increased opportunity to develop capabilities and agency.