More teachers and Learning Support Educators (LSEs) have been recruited this year than last year, to the effect that certain shortages which were prevalent throughout the last scholastic year have now been addressed, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo told The Malta Independent.

Asked about various posts which emerged on social media last week – which was the first week of the new scholastic year – where parents complained that their children are having a lot of free lessons as a result of there not being teachers to teach the subject, Bartolo said that more teachers and LSEs were recruited than last year to the point that certain shortages were addressed.

One subject area where there is still a shortage is in mathematics, with Bartolo saying that the government must get creative in order to attract mathematics students into the teaching profession as opposed to other professions such as engineering, statistics, or scientific fields.

Bartolo noted that he prefers if parents were to send their complaints directly to the government, referring specifically to the school and subject where there seems to be a shortage so that the Ministry can verify the claim and address it if need be.

This being said, Bartolo noted that a positive piece of news which has emerged over the course of last week was that Malta was declared at the European Education Summit as being the country with the youngest workforce of teachers. Other countries, he noted, will have to change up to half of their teaching workforce within the next ten years, but there are no such issues in Malta’s case.

He also expressed satisfaction at the fact that the number of students which enrolled in the Masters of Teaching and Learning course at the University of Malta had double from 80 to around 160 students, showing that despite the doom and gloom that surrounds the profession, more and more youths are being attracted to it.

The Malta Independent had previously reported that the government is seeking to employ foreign teachers to work in state schools, but in recent days MUT President Marco Bonnici said that the Ministry had backed off from this idea, most likely due to the uproar that it had created.

Shortages meanwhile have been flagged across social media, with the PN local councillor Justin Schembri – who is also a teacher by profession – noting that there were serious teacher shortages in Mathematics, Maltese, and English to the point that students were only having half of their allotted lessons.