National Statistics Office (NSO)

Tourism and Education Statistics

National Statistics Office, Lascaris, Valletta, VLT 2000

A general description of the statistical process and its outputs, and their evolution over time.

NATIONAL EDUCATION SYSTEM
The following documents provide general information on the educational system; please add the relevant links for your country.

 ISCED CLASSIFICATION & ISCED Fields of Education and Training:

http://uis.unesco.org/en/topic/international-standard-classification-education-isced

All institutions offering formal education in the public, government dependent and independent sectors.

https://circabc.europa.eu/w/browse/9a687a2c-b8a9-4ccb-8c15-67e07099c35f

Institutions providing formal education.

All students, graduates and personnel in formal education from public, government dependent and independent sectors.

National.

Detailed information on Education Statistics is available as from 2012.

Not applicable.

For each UOE table, please list the source(s) used to compile information: UOE table, name, type, date of availability and responsibility.

Annual.

Information regarding state-owned pre-primary, primary and secondary schools is received from MEDE, while electronic questionnaires are sent to church and independent schools covering pre-primary to upper-secondary levels.

Institutions offering post-secondary and Tertiary education are contacted directly by NSO via an email questionnaire.

Prior to data analysis, data from different sources are checked for completeness and merged into a single data file.

Data checking and validation takes place at different stages of production. In the first instance data is checked for completeness and a broad comparison with data from the previous academic years is carried out. Subsequently, data is appropriately coded.

Operations performed on data to derive new information according to a given set of rules.

Significant investment has been made in order to improve the quality of education statistics and the efficiency with which these are produced. All variables are realistically achieved.

Education datasets are considered very exhaustive: For this reason a lot of time and effort goes into cleaning the data especially since the administrative sources (registers) on which they are based are not designed for statistical reasons.

Auxiliary sources and past data are consulted in the case of missing data.

The NSO also works to establish better relationships with its administrative data providers; with the knowledge that if these understand better what data is sought, the data quality will also improve. NSO also proposed and succeeded in convincing administrative data providers to modify the content of their databases to better cater for its statistical requirements. To this end, education statistics can be considered to be of good quality in view of more accurate administrative data being collected.

The main users of UOE data are:

• Central government - Particularly the Ministry for Education and Employment (MEDE)
• The National Commission for Further and Higher education (NCFHE)
• The Central Bank of Malta (CBM)
• Other units within NSO
• Other institutions falling under the education domain
• Independent educational institutions
• Researchers and students.
• General public.

A user satisfaction survey was carried out by the NSO to measure the degree with which it meets its obligations towards its users.  The survey was held in 2014, and a dedicated news release outlines main results from this survey, which can be accessed through: 

http://nso.gov.mt/en/News_Releases/View_by_Unit/Unit_01/Methodology_and_Research/Pages/User-Satisfaction-Survey.aspx

The extent to which all statistics that are needed are available.

The NSO has full coverage of all education institutions offering formal education. Microdata are collected in sufficient detail to cater for a variety of users' requests. Furthermore the collection covers all mandatory information requested by Eurostat for UOE data transmission.

As per EC Regulation No 912/2013, courses for which the duration is less than the equivalent of part-time, as calculated in full-time equivalent, are excluded in the data collection.  Furthermore all courses that are not delivered in Malta are excluded.

The NSO has full coverage of all education institutions in the target population. Consistency checks are carried out with data provided from previous academic years and coherence tests are made with other auxiliary sources.

Not Applicable, a census of institutions is undertaken.

Not Applicable, a census of institutions is undertaken.

Every effort is made to minimise the incidence of non-sampling error such as unit non-response and item non-response, in which case imputations are performed. Nevertheless, since the questionnaire is filled in by the respondents independently, this may cause non-sampling error which can be reduced by adequate validations.

Divergence between the frame population and the target population.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

In circumstances where variables are missing, these are retrieved from auxiliary administrative registers or past data.

Not applicable.

Minimal.

Not applicable.

Not Applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Education statistics are not normally subject to revisions. However, whenever revisions are carried out, these are always adequately documented both in the quality report that is annually sent to Eurostat and in the methodological sheet accompanying NSO news releases.

Any change in a value of a statistic released to the public.

Not available.

Length of time between data availability and the event or phenomenon they describe. Typically includes:

September year t+2 for student UOE Enrolments, Entrants, Class, Languages and Personnel. November year t+2 for UOE Graduates, Credit Mobility and Finance.

Not applicable.

All information was submitted to Eurostat on time.

The number of days between the delivery/release date of data and the target date on which they were scheduled for delivery/ release.

The UOE manual is adhered to for the whole procedure, thus enabling geographical comparability across EU Member states, OECD members and the EFTA countries.

The extent to which statistics are comparable between countries.

A. Deviations between the national methodology and the UOE Manual: non financial data

B. Deviations between the national methodology and the UOE Manual: financial data

Not applicable.

The extent to which statistics are comparable or reconcilable over time.

Data prior to academic year 2012/2013 has not been revised to include the reclassification of upper secondary education and is therefore not comparable to other data. 

ISCED 11 was used, as requested, for the first time for academic year 2012/2013. Previous data is classified in ISCED 97.

Fields classification 2013 was used as from 2014/2015, previous data was classified in Fields classification 1999.

ISCED 45 was revised and recoded into ISCED 35. This change has been applied as from academic year 2012/2013.

The extent to which statistics are reconcilable with those obtained through other data sources or statistical domains.

Not applicable.

The extent to which statistics are reconcilable with National Accounts.

Some aggregated data is shared on an annual basis with other units within NSO and consistency with their datasets is assured.

The following two news releases in relation to education statistics were published during 2019. These cover scholastic years 2014/2015, 2015/2016 and 2016/2017:

• Graduate Students: 2016/2017
  (https://nso.gov.mt/en/News_Releases/View_by_Unit/Unit_C3/Tourism_Statistics/Documents/2019/News2019_123.pdf)
• ​Post-secondary and Tertiary Student Enrolments: Academic year 2016-2017
  (https://nso.gov.mt/en/News_Releases/View_by_Unit/Unit_C3/Tourism_Statistics/Documents/2019/News2019_092.pdf)

Additionally, a release on Teaching English as a Foreign Language was published in 2019 covering year 2018:

• ​​​​Teaching English as a Foreign Language: 2018
  (https://nso.gov.mt/en/News_Releases/View_by_Unit/Unit_C3/Tourism_Statistics/Documents/2019/News2019_042.pdf)

Students and Graduate data are included in the NSO's publication 'Regional Statistics MALTA 2019 Edition'

(https://nso.gov.mt/en/publicatons/Publications_by_Unit/Documents/02_Regional_Statistics_(Gozo_Office)/Regional%20Statistics%20MALTA%202019%20Edition.pdf)

Not available.

Not available.

No microdata access is available on this topic.

NSO grants access to microdata under strict conditions to institutions or persons regarded as research entities or researchers. Further information about access to microdata from NSO can be retrieved through: http://nso.gov.mt/en/Services/Microdata/Pages/Access-to-Microdata.aspx

Ad hoc requests for statistical information can be made through the NSO online portal: http://nso.gov.mt/en/Services/Pages/Request-for-Information.aspx

Metadata file is available on the NSO's website and can be accessed at: https://nso.gov.mt/metadata/reports.aspx?id=41

The UOE methodological manual supplied by Eurostat is constantly consulted in order to ensure full conformity with Eurostat definitions.

All methods are documented in a quality report which is updated annually.

Consistency checks are carried out with data provided during previous academic years and coherence tests are made with the use of other auxiliary sources.

N/A

N/A

Indication of the cost associated with the collection and production of a statistical product and burden on respondents.

At National level: Confidentiality is one of the major principles guiding the activities of the NSO.

Article 40 of the Malta Statistics Authority Act – Cap. 422 of the Laws of Malta, stipulates the restrictions on the use of information and in Article 41, the prohibition of disclosure of information. Furthermore, Section IX of the Act (Offences and Penalties) lays down the measures to be taken in case of unlawful exercise of any officer of statistics regarding confidentiality of data. No cases of breaches in the law have been recorded to date.

Since its inception, the NSO has always operated within a culture of strict confidentiality to which it is also bound by the provisions of the Data Protection Act – Cap. 586 of the Laws of Malta. 

Refer also to the NSO policy on access to microdata on the NSO's website through: https://nso.gov.mt/en/Services/Microdata/Pages/Access-to-Microdata.aspx

An internal Statistical Disclosure Committee ensures that statistical confidentiality is observed and analyses requests for microdata received by the NSO.

Upon employment, NSO employees are informed of the rules and duties pertaining to confidential information and its treatment. According to the MSA Act, before commencing work, every employee is required to take an oath of secrecy which text is included in the Act. 

At European level: Regulations (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics and its amending Regulation 2015/759, stipulate the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

Education statistics are released in aggregated format. UOE data collection caters for data to be flagged as ‘c’ (confidential) and this decision is at the discretion of each Member State. The criterion used to determine if a stratum is confidential refers to the absolute count of persons in that stratum. A stratum with less than 3 counts is flagged as confidential.

No further comments.