Of the 19,561 teaching and non-teaching personnel in formal education, 10,229 were in teaching and academic roles while 9,332 were in non-teaching and administrative roles (Chart 2). The majority were females amounting to 69.8 per cent of all teaching and non-teaching staff (Chart 1).
Chart 1. Percentage distribution of total teaching and non-teaching staff by sex
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Note: For Teaching and Non-teaching staff grade descriptions refer to methodological note 10.
Chart 2. Classroom teachers, academic and non-teaching staff by academic year
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Note: For grade descriptions refer to methodological note 10.
Classroom teachers and academic staff
Classroom teachers and academic staff in pre-primary to tertiary education institutions during academic year 2021-2022 increased by 5.1 per cent over the preceding academic year, totalling 10,229 (Chart 2; Table 1-2). Of these, 25.2 per cent were teachers at the upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary levels, while 24.1 per cent were teachers at the tertiary level. The largest share of teaching personnel were females, at 66.1 per cent. Full-time teachers accounted for 82.1 per cent of the total. When comparing with academic year 2020-2021, part-time classroom teachers and academic staff increased by 31.7 per cent (Table 2).
Chart 3. Percentage distribution of full-time teachers and academic staff1 by education level2
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Chart 4. Percentage distribution of part-time teachers and academic staff1 by education level2
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1 For grade descriptions refer to methodological note 10.
2 Education level refers to the level in which staff are engaged. For education classification refer to methodological note 9.
Total tertiary level male academic staff stood at 1,506 or 61.0 per cent (Table 3). Slightly more than half of full-time classroom teachers and academic staff were engaged in lower secondary, upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education (51.7 per cent of full-time classroom teachers and academic staff) (Chart 3). The majority of part-time classroom teachers and academic staff were engaged in tertiary education (80.7 per cent) (Chart 4).
During the academic year under review, 16.5 per cent of all teaching staff were aged between 30 and 34 years, followed by the 35 to 39 years age-bracket, at 15.4 per cent (Table 4). The largest proportion of foreign classroom teachers and academic staff were engaged in private institutions – with 37.8 per cent of classroom teachers and academic staff working in private institutions being foreign (Chart 5).
Chart 5. Percentage distribution of classroom teachers and academic staff¹ by type of institution and broad citizenship of staff
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1 For grade descriptions refer to methodological note 10.
The overall pupil-teacher ratio stood at 8.8 pupils per teacher during academic year 2021-2022. The highest ratio was recorded in private schools, at 11.5 pupils per teacher, whereas the lowest ratio was in state schools at 7.9 pupils per teacher (Chart 6, Table 6).
Chart 6. Pupil-teacher¹ ratio by education level², academic year and type of institution
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1 Refer to methodological note 7.
2 Education level refers to the level in which staff are engaged. For education classification refer to methodological note 9.
Non-teaching staff
During academic year 2021-2022, non-teaching staff in education amounted to 9,332, an increase of 5.2 per cent when compared to the previous academic year (Chart 2; Table 1). Females represented 73.7 per cent of the total non-teaching staff. More than half of the non-teaching personnel were ‘Teacher Aides’, totalling 4,717, or 50.5 per cent of all non-teaching staff. A total of 1,479 persons were engaged as school or higher level administration staff (15.8 per cent of all non-teaching staff), a further 1,277 and 1,224 were engaged in school or higher level management and as maintenance and operations staff respectively (13.7 per cent and 13.1 per cent of all non-teaching staff) (Table 7).
More than a third of teacher aides were aged between 30 and 39 years – 36.7 per cent (Table 8). The majority (67.3 per cent) were engaged in state-run institutions (Table 9). About 2 in every 5 teacher aides were engaged in primary education (42.9 per cent of teacher aides) (Table 10).
The total number of persons engaged in school level management and higher-level management roles stood at 1,277, registering an increase of 7.8 per cent when compared to academic year 2020-2021 (Table 11).
Tables
Methodological Notes
1. Education statistics presented in this news release are processed by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on an annual basis in accordance with European Regulations (EC) 452/2008 and (EU) 912/2013. These regulations establish the basis of information to be collected from educational institutions at all levels of education and all economic sectors. By adhering to these regulations, all education statistics collected and processed by the NSO are comparable to other European countries following the same regulatory standards.
2. This news release includes educational personnel working in institutions providing formal education courses with a minimum duration of one semester of full-time study (or the equivalent in part-time) and that are delivered from Malta. Formal education is an institutionalised, intentional and planned type of education which is provided by public organisations and recognised private bodies. It consists primarily of initial education designed for children and young people before their first entry to the labour market. It also includes other types of education such as vocational, special needs and adult education provided they are recognised as part of the formal education system by the relevant national education authorities.
3. Data is collected as at 31st March of the reference academic year.
4. Source of data collected:
● The Ministry for Education, Sports, Youth, Research and Innovation (MEYR) is the direct source of administrative data for teaching and non-teaching staff in state and church institutions in the pre-primary till the post-secondary levels of education, and for teaching staff of private schools in the pre-primary till the secondary levels of education.
● Private schools are the direct source of non-teaching staff data from pre-primary to tertiary levels of education and teaching staff for the post-secondary till the tertiary levels of education.
● State schools are the direct source of teaching and non-teaching staff data for post-secondary to tertiary levels of education.
5. Staff members are counted only once in the data collection. If staff are assigned to more than one level or grade, or if they have more than one contract, their numbers are pro-rated according to the contractual hours devoted to each programme based on the intensity, level or grade during the academic year. Where the information is unknown, staff are pro-rated in equal shares to each programme, level or grade to which they are assigned during the reference year.
6. Some institutions do not provide the level of education in which the staff are employed in. For this reason, staff are randomly allocated an ISCED level based on the proportion of students in that particular school.
7. Pupil-teacher ratio is calculated by dividing the number of full-time equivalent pupils and students in each level of education by the number of full-time equivalent teachers at the same level.
8. Age is calculated as at 1st January of the reference academic year. For example, for academic year 2021-2022, age is calculated as at 1st January 2022.
9. Classifications:
● Broad citizenship: The main citizenship group of the person as recorded by the administrative source.
● Education levels are based on ISCED 2011 classification. For the purpose of this news release:
Pre-primary education: ISCED 02 – Kinder 1 and Kinder 2.
Primary education: ISCED 1 – Year 1 to Year 6.
Lower secondary education: ISCED 2 – Year 7-Year 9 (Form 1 to Form 3), the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST), Institute of Tourism Studies (ITS), and public and private institutions at ISCED Level 2.
Upper Secondary and Post-secondary non-tertiary education: ISCED 3, ISCED 4 – Year 10 and Year 11 (Form 4 and Form 5), Sixth Forms, the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST), Institute of Tourism Studies (ITS), University of Malta, and public and private institutions offering courses at ISCED Levels 3 and 4.
Tertiary education: ISCED 5 to ISCED 8 – the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST), Institute of Tourism Studies (ITS), University of Malta, and public and private institutions offering courses at ISCED Levels 5 to 8.
● International Standard Classification of Education – ISCED 2011
The International Standard Classification of Education is a framework for assembling, compiling, and analysing cross-nationally comparable statistics on education. ISCED belongs to the United Nations International Family of Economic and Social Classifications and is the reference classification for organising education programmes and related qualifications by levels and fields of education. ISCED is designed to serve as a framework to classify educational activities as defined in programmes and the resulting qualifications into internationally agreed categories. For more information refer to the ISCED 2011 manual or ISCED 2011 classification.
10. Grade descriptions:
Teachers and Academic Staff:
● Teachers/Classroom teachers guide and direct the learning experience of students. Teaching involves planning, organising and conducting group activities whereby students’ knowledge, skills and competencies develop as stipulated by the educational programme in which they participate. Classroom teachers include kindergarten educators, supply kindergarten educators, supply teachers, activity teachers, support teachers, peripatetic teachers, teachers amongst other grades.
● Academic staff includes personnel at the tertiary level of education whose primary assignment is instruction. Academic staff may hold an academic rank with titles such as professor, assistant professor, instructor, lecturer, assistant lecturer or the equivalent of these academic ranks.
Non-Teaching Staff:
● Teacher aides and other paraprofessional personnel are personnel who support teachers in providing instruction to students. Teacher aides include Learning Support Educators (LSEs), Supply Learning Support Educators (SLSEs), technical officers, technicians amongst other technical grades.
● Research assistants covers personnel whose primary purpose is to conduct research.
● Pedagogical support covers professional staff who provide services to students to support their instructional programme. This classification includes guidance counsellors, career advisors, librarians amongst other grades.
● Health and social support covers all personnel in educational institutions who provide health and social support services to students. This classification includes health professionals such as nurses, health attendants, psychologists, occupational therapists, social workers amongst others.
● School level management covers professional personnel who are responsible for school management. This classification includes principals, assistant principals, head of departments, head of school, assistant head teachers, deans, directors amongst others.
● Higher level management covers personnel whose primary responsibility is quality control and the management of the education system at the higher level. Their work may involve direct administration or other functions that support the operation of education institutions. This category includes directors of planning and evaluation, business development manager, senior executives, service managers amongst other grades.
● School level administrative personnel covers all personnel who support the administration of the schools. This category includes receptionists, secretaries, clerks, bookkeepers, assistants amongst other similar grades.
● Higher level administrative personnel covers personnel who support the administrative functions of the educational system at the higher level. This category includes grades such as supervisors, managers, consultants amongst other similar grades.
● Maintenance and operations personnel covers personnel who support the maintenance and operations of the educational institutions. This category includes security guards, cleaning attendants, drivers, handymen, gardeners, general hand, messengers, cooks, food caterers amongst other grades.
11. In this news release, the terms personnel and staff are used interchangeably.
12. Totals or percentages may not add up due to rounding.
13. The data contained in this news release may be revised.
14. More information relating to this release may be accessed at:
Sources and Methods
Concept and Definitions
15. References to this news release are to be cited appropriately.
16. A detailed news release calendar is available online.
17. European statistics related to personnel are available here.
18. For further assistance send your request through our online request form.
- Total personnel in formal education institutions during academic year 2021-2022 totalled 19,561, increasing by 5.2 per cent when compared to the previous academic year.
- Teaching staff in state, church and private schools amounted to 10,229.
- The largest share of teaching staff were females, at 66.1 per cent.
- Teaching staff in state-run institutions corresponded to 72.0 per cent of the total teaching staff.
