The Malta Union of Teachers is ready to register an industrial dispute with the government unless issues pertaining to the printing of material needed in schools are solved.

In a statement, the MUT said that the Education Ministry wants to extend a pilot project regarding printing of material to all government schools. This means that all educators in government schools would need to make use of the government printing press for any paper they want to print.

It is clear, the MUT said, that there was no evaluation of the pilot project and that this will be extended without consultation and in spite of objections raised by educators.

The system that will be put in place will have an impact on the professional autonomy of the educators and will put everyone in a centralised printing mechanism. This will be a burden to educators, in particular those who adapt their work based on the abilities of students under their care.

This system will also create logistical problems which could mean that printed material needed would not be ready in time for planned lessons, the MUT said.

The pilot project which was started in a few schools raised these issued but the government seems to want to plough on without analysing what the difficulties encountered were.

The MUT said it is not accepting the situation and is ready to register an industrial dispute if the government persists with its intentions.