Education is compulsory up to the age of 16 and is provided by the state, church or private organisations. Religious education arrived on the island with the Knights Hospitallers in the Medieval period, but state education was only available for all at the end of the eighteenth century under French rule.
There are four levels of education: pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary. At the age of 11, students sit an ‘eleven-plus’ exam which decides whether they go to a junior lyceum (or prestigious secondary school) or simply a standard school. Nearly a third of Malta’s students go to private school, mostly run by the Catholic Church.
The first university in Malta was founded in 1592. It currently has 10,000 students. A bachelor’s degree commonly lasts for three years.
