Overview of
the projects currently being undertaken by the Research Unit at the DRLLE
Studies into Children’s Wellbeing and
Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC)
The Ministry for Education and Sport and the Ministry for Health are
conducting 2 national studies about children’s wellbeing, namely the Children’s
Wellbeing Study and the Health Behaviour of School-aged Children. The latter is
a World Health Organization collaborative cross-national study that collects
data from 11, 13 and 15 year old children every 4 years. The 2 studies are
being conducted together because of the common topic.
The project aims to:
Gain insight into our children’s health and wellbeing, comprehend
important determinants of health, and inform policy and practice to better the
lives of young people.
Data Collection:
This study is being conducted at middle and secondary state,
church, and independent schools, each child is being provided a
tablet to complete an 80-minute anonymous questionnaire in Maltese or
in English.
Project timeframe: January – March 2022
CITO: CheckIn TakeOff
CITO is one
of the projects under the ERASMUS+ EU Policy experimentation in the fields of
Education and Training led by high-level public authorities in Malta, Ireland
and Norway.
This project
aim is:
To develop a SkillsChecker tool that enables a person
to independently carry out an initial assessment of their literacy, numeracy
and digital skills. This will orientate them to their options regarding a
flexible learning opportunity as well as recognising their prior skills while
providing further pathways. More specifically, the SkillsChecker is aimed at
empowering the learner to explore a learner centred approach to lifelong
learning. CITO’s solution is to have an effective and independent assessment of
one’s own skills.
Project timeframe: September 2020 –
February 2022
BMI Study: Prevalence of
overweight and obese children attending kindergarten year K2 to year 11, in
Malta
The Department for Research, Lifelong
Learning and Employability within the Ministry for Education and Employment is working together with the
Superintendence of Public Health, to implement Budget Measure 191/2020 and
supplementary Budget Measure 033/2020.
The aim of these two budget
initiatives are:
- To measure the prevalence of overweight and obesity
among students attending Kindergarten 2 to Year 11.
- To identify
the rate of overweight and obesity in children residing in the Maltese Islands.
- To identify any associations with lifestyle patterns.
Project timeframe: January 2020 – December 2022
Migrant Students in the State School
Sector: A Study of Experiences, Impact, Issues and Challenges
The Ministry for Education and Employment, through
the Directorate for the Curriculum, Life Long Learning and Employability, is
currently conducting a project on migrant students in the State school sector.
The aims of this project are:
- To provide a scientific, empirically-based exploration
of the impact of migrant students in primary and secondary schools.
- To shed light on the experiences of migrant students
in Malta and feed in to policy recommendations.
- To highlight good practices and raise awareness of the
needs of this student cohort
- To seek to map out the experiences, impact, issues,
opinions and concerns of migrant students and their parents/guardians, Maltese
students and their parents/guardians, teachers of migrant students and SMTs.
This project consists of a number of focus groups
and a questionnaire with the above mentioned stakeholders. This project is being undertaken under the guidance
of Prof. Mark Borg.
Timeframe: 2019/20: Focus groups with Maltese
and non-Maltese students their parents, teachers and with the senior management
team.
Research and Policy Documentation
Centre (RPDC)
The setup of
a Research and Policy Documentation Centre (RPDC) as a data and documentation
archive for Ministry for Education and Employment staff.
The aim of
the RPDC is:
- To contribute to the development of evidence-based
policy and practice through facilitating the exchange of information, related
to the remit of the Ministry for Education and Employment (MEDE), in a reliable
and timely manner.