The main objective of this study is to examine student reading achievement in Malta.  Malta is a small, highly populated Mediterranean island state with a population of approximately 425,384 inhabitants on a territory of 316 km² (National Statistics Office, 2014). Tourism, electronics manufacturing, shipping, banking and internet services, including gaming, are significant sources of income. According to the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index, (Schwab & Sala-i-Martίn, 2014, p. 17) Malta ranks 20^th out of 144 economies and scores 6.43 on a 1-to-7 scale on health and primary education. The relatively high placing for health and primary education is not mirrored in international literacy studies; Maltese primary school pupils were ranked 35^th of 45 participating countries (Ministry for Education and Employment, 2013) on the 2011 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). Similarly, 6.4% of the adult population over the age of 10 was classified as illiterate in 2011with illiteracy being more common in the older age groups (National Statistics Office, 2011).

Children who develop good literacy skills can access and develop a wide knowledge base if they are adequately guided and supported. They are likely to cultivate their abilities to include tertiary levels of education (Snowling, 2013). This is the case in many innovation driven economies and has the potential for building and contributing to a technologically diverse and advanced society (UNDP, 2014).

This study examines some of the possible factors that have contributed to the low ranking of Maltese students in PIRLS 2011.

These factors are examined in view of traditionally low educational attainment caused by Malta’s long history of colonial ruling (Sultana, 1998). The study also examines the recent transition from a factor-driven economy based on low-cost labour to an innovation-driven, knowledge and skills-based economy; with more advanced services and production having intensified since Malta's entry into the European Union in 2004.

As with other factor-driven economies, Malta enjoys good health protection and primary education enrolment. Unlike innovation-driven economies however, its workforce generally lacks higher education and training (UNDP, 2014). This has two concomitant effects; the first being that the expertise necessary for the development of an innovation-driven economy is not available locally and needs, initially, to be imported.  Secondly, and perhaps more deleteriously, a lower value is placed on progress to tertiary level education with less than half the population of under 25 year olds attending university (European Commission, 2014). Those who do not attend university usually seek manual or unskilled employment. If one considers the high early school-leaving rates and relatively high numbers of school leavers not gaining six “ordinary level subjects” on completion of their secondary schooling, the issue assumes overwhelming proportions (Ministry of Education and Employment, 2012). The score obtained in PIRLS 2011 is indicative of wider social issues, such as issues associated with the bilingual education and alienation from schooling.

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