The Malta Union of Teachers held a press conference held today at its office in Valletta, during which they brought up a number of points.

The Union made it clear immediately that it “agrees with co-education and that it believes that this is a step in the right direction.” The Union had also agreed that there should be a pilot project in order to build a model to follow and evaluate.

The Union pointed out that, “even though this pilot project is not even half way through, schools are now being informed that all Form 1s from the next scholastic year will be co-ed. The MUT was expecting, on the contrary to other pilot projects of the past, that since this reform is of paramount importance and is going to change the physiognomy and the whole educational culture once for all, there should have been at least a serious evaluation of the pilot project before taking a definitive decision.”

The Union said that it has already shared this reflection with the Ministry and the Directorate and a committee was in fact established to evaluate the project at a National level. “This committee will be meeting later today. The Union is also informed that the internal committee at the Pembroke School established to evaluate the pilot project has not met since the start of the scholastic year.”

With regards to Middle and Senior Schools, the Union said that “for many years a lot of teachers and educators in Secondary were going through considerable uncertainty. While the structure of the schools is a political decision, the Union appreciates that at last decisions on each school seem to have started being taken.”

The Union said that it “hopes that in the coming days each educator at Secondary level will have an idea of what is going to happen to his/her workplace. The MUT will be in discussion with the Directorates to ensure that the deployment exercise resulting from schools shutting down or changing in size is transparent and just.”

The MUT said that it is in favour of the Breakfast Club, which it said will be of benefit to working parents and to children alike. The MUT said that it “has as yet no details whatsoever on where, when and how this initiative is going to be implemented. The Ministry of Education and Employment has yesterday written to the Union stating that it is currently collecting data from schools in order to be in a position to take any decisions. An initiative like this needs substantial investment and it is hoped that even in this case the investment required is allocated.”

On the introduction of tablets in education, the Union said it is not against this, it is only requesting that this is ultimately beneficial for education and that it facilitates learning. As a result, the MUT said that it expects tablets to aid teachers in their work and not acting as an extra burden on the Primary curriculum. “Apart from this the Union is adamant, and there seems to be an agreement on this, that such a project should not involve pupils in the middle of a scholastic year but should start from a new one.”

The Union said it will be holding the first of a series of meetings on Thursday morning with the Directorates in order to reach an agreement.

The Union commented that “the Education Minister said recently that the biggest challenge facing teachers is not co-education but mixed ability teaching, which he said was introduced without any planning.”

While the Union agrees with this, the MUT notes that so far in reality nothing has been done to concretely address this acute problem faced by teachers from levels Year 5 to Form 5. “Many plans were prepared on other issues but the Union still needs to receive tangible proposals on how this problem is going to be addressed.”

The Union added that it has made many suggestions, such as that the number of students in class is reduced to have more individual attention and that the syllabi content is adapted for exigencies for today’s children. “The Union expects that once both the Ministry and the MUT are in agreement that this issue is the ‘biggest headache for the teacher’ there should be tangible proposals about what the Ministry intends to do in this regard.”

The MUT said that before last March’s general election the Union presented documentation and research to both parties that express the fact that educators in schools were going through many consecutive reforms.

The Union said that they established that there needed to be a period of time for the absorption of ongoing reforms before introducing more. Both parties, during meetings before the election, agreed with this and pledged to note this factor. “However, less than a year since the election, there has already been three substantial reforms taking place while the most acute problem – mixed ability teaching – is not being tackled concretely.”

The MUT, concluded the press conference by saying that apart from representing its members collectively and individually according to the need, felt that it should create more awareness with the public about the good work that our educators are doing for the benefit of society. “We should not forget that especially in a country like ours the main resource is human and this ultimately requires continuous proper education to succeed.”

“In view of this, the Union, through its Education Committee, is launching its third from a series of campaigns. The theme is “Hajr lill-Edukaturi” (“Appreciating Educators”) and will be carried out through electronic communication with the use of the Union’s website, social networks and email.”

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