Indian students up 35%, Chinese 29%, Maltese down 2.2% in a year

Indian student enrolment in Malta’s schools rose by 35.1% and Chinese enrolment by 29% in a year, while the number of Maltese students fell by 2.2%, according to new National Statistics Office figures.

The contrasting movements come amid debate over Labour’s reliance on foreign workers to sustain economic expansion, and Prime Minister Robert Abela’s defence of continued population growth.

Indian enrolment increased from 553 to 747 between the 2023–24 and 2024–25 academic years. Chinese student numbers rose from 527 to 680. Together, the two groups accounted for 347 of the additional 1,254 non-Maltese students.

Over the same period, Maltese enrolment dropped by 1,112, from 49,742 to 48,630. Overall enrolment barely changed, increasing by just 142 students, or 0.2%, to 60,339.

Non-Maltese students consequently represented 19.4% of enrolment, up from 17.4% a year earlier. Non-EU students accounted for most of that increase, with their numbers rising by 1,005 to 7,867.

The figures cover pre-primary education excluding childcare, primary and secondary schools. They describe enrolment at the end of March 2025, rather than the current academic year.

The demographic shift was particularly visible in state schools.

Their Maltese enrolment fell by 1,019, while non-Maltese enrolment increased by 989. This left total state enrolment almost unchanged, despite the substantial change in its composition.

State schools educated 9,269 non-Maltese students, approximately four-fifths of the national total. Non-Maltese students represented 25.8% of state-school enrolment and 26.7% in private schools, compared with just 1.2% in church schools.

Continuing to push economic growth through cheap labour, Robert Abela said the population had increased by around 14,000 in 2025 and argued that growth at that level was manageable. He defended allowing businesses access to foreign workers while promising a slower, calibrated increase.

That position has drawn scrutiny over whether economic expansion depends too heavily on adding workers rather than improving productivity. Abela has also rejected the characterisation of Malta’s economic model as being based on population growth, including in parliament this week.

The school figures add an education dimension to the equation, showing how changing citizenship patterns are affecting the composition of classrooms even when national enrolment remains stable. This means that the government has to fork out many millions to offer free education to non-Maltese students.