Salient Points
- Total personnel in formal education institutions during academic year 2024-2025 totalled 20,448, increasing by 1.3 per cent when compared to the previous academic year.
- Teaching staff in state, church and private schools amounted to 10,664.
- The largest share of teaching staff were females, at 65.7 per cent.
- Teaching staff in state-run institutions corresponded to 68.6 per cent of the total teaching staff.
Commentary
Of the 20,448 personnel working in formal education, 10,664 were in teaching and academic roles, while 9,784 were in non-teaching and administrative roles. The majority of all teaching and non-teaching staff were females, amounting to 70.2 per cent (Charts 1 and 2).
Classroom teachers and academic staff
Classroom teachers and academic staff in pre-primary to tertiary education institutions during academic year 2024-2025 increased by 1.9 per cent over the preceding academic year, totalling 10,664. Of all teaching and academic personnel, 27.4 per cent were academic staff at the tertiary level, while 23.7 per cent were teachers at the upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary levels. The largest share of teaching personnel were females, at 65.7 per cent. Full-time teachers accounted for 79.2 per cent of the total. When comparing with academic year 2023-2024, foreign classroom teachers and academic staff increased by 3.8 per cent (Chart 2, Tables 1 and 2).
In all levels of education below tertiary education, the percentage of female teaching and academic staff was higher than their male counterparts. At tertiary level, the percentage of male academic staff was higher than their female counterparts at 59.5 per cent of academic personnel (1,737 persons). More than half of full-time classroom teachers and academic staff were engaged in lower secondary, upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education (51.8 per cent). The majority of part-time classroom teachers and academic staff were engaged in tertiary education (86.0 per cent) (Charts 3 and 4, Table 3).
During the academic year under review, 15.5 per cent of all teaching staff were aged between 35 and 39 years, followed by those aged 40 to 44 years, at 15.1 per cent. The largest proportion of foreign classroom teachers and academic staff were engaged in private institutions, where they accounted for 41.5 per cent of teaching and academic staff in this sector. The majority of teachers and academic staff working in pre-primary to upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education were Maltese. At the tertiary level, 76.1 per cent of academic staff were Maltese, while 23.9 per cent were foreign (Chart 5, Tables 4 and 6).
The overall pupil-teacher ratio stood at 9.2 pupils per teacher during academic year 2024-2025. The highest ratio was recorded in private schools, at 12.3 pupils per teacher, whereas the lowest ratio was in state schools, at 8.1 pupils per teacher (Table 7).
Non-teaching staff
During academic year 2024-2025, non-teaching staff in education amounted to 9,784, an increase of 0.7 per cent when compared to the previous academic year. Females represented 75.0 per cent of the total non-teaching staff. More than half of the non-teaching personnel were teacher aides, totalling 5,028, or 51.4 per cent of all non-teaching staff. Furthermore, there were 374 research assistants and 379 persons working in other pedagogical, health and/or social support during academic year 2024-2025 (Chart 2, Tables 1 and 8).
Around a third of teacher aides were aged between 30 and 39 years, accounting for 32.8 per cent of the total. The majority were engaged in state-run institutions (65.6 per cent), and almost 45 per cent of teacher aides were engaged in primary education (44.9 per cent) (Tables 9, 10 and 11).
The total number of persons engaged in school level management and higher level management roles stood at 1,486, registering an increase of 4.0 per cent when compared to academic year 2023-2024 (Table 12).
Tables
- xlsx Table 1. Personnel in educational institutions by academic year and category 14.99 KB
- xlsx Table 2. Profile of teachers and academic staff by academic year 15.72 KB
- xlsx Table 3. Teachers and academic staff by sex, academic year and education level 14.57 KB
- xlsx Table 4. Teachers and academic staff by academic year, sex and age group 15.97 KB
- xlsx Table 5. Teachers and academic staff by academic year, sex and type of institution 14.81 KB
- xlsx Table 6. Teachers and academic staff by academic year, broad citizenship and education level 15.08 KB
- xlsx Table 7. Pupil-teacher ratio by academic year, type of institution and education level 15.04 KB
- xlsx Table 8. Non-teaching staff by academic year, sex and grade 16.61 KB
- xlsx Table 9. Teacher aides by academic year and age group 14.42 KB
- xlsx Table 10. Teacher aides by academic year, sex and type of institution 14.60 KB
- xlsx Table 11. Teacher aides by sex, academic year and education level 14.39 KB
- xlsx Table 12. Management personnel by academic year and education level 14.68 KB
- xlsx All Tables 50.60 KB
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. Figures presented in this news release are based on data available as at the cut-off date of 31 July 2026. Statistics published in this release may be subject to revisions.
3. 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.
4. Data is collected as at 31 March of the reference academic year.
5. Source of data collected:
● The Ministry for Education and Sport (MES) is the direct source of administrative data for teaching and non-teaching staff in state and church institutions offering pre-primary to post-secondary levels of education, and for teaching staff of private schools from pre-primary to 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 post-secondary to 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.
6. During 2024, the NSO focused on fine-tuning the methodology used in the calculation of personnel in State-run institutions in order to address data gaps. These methodological enhancements mainly affected the classification of non-teaching personnel.
7. 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. In those cases 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.
8. Some institutions do not provide information on the level of education in which the staff are employed. For this reason, staff are randomly allocated an International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) level based on the proportion of students in that particular school.
9. 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.
10. Age is calculated as at 1 January of the reference academic year. For example, for academic year 2024-2025, age is calculated as at 1 January 2025.
11. 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 to 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.
12. 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 cover 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 cover 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 departments responsible for inclusive education, head of school, assistant head teachers, deans, directors, education officers, 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 managers, 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 hands, messengers, cooks, food caterers, amongst other grades.
13. In this news release, the terms personnel and staff are used interchangeably.
14. Totals or percentages may not add up due to rounding.
15. More information relating to this release may be accessed at:
Sources and Methods
Concept and Definitions
16. European statistics related to personnel are available here.
17. References to this news release are to be cited appropriately. For guidance on access and re-use of data please visit our dedicated webpage.
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