Educators need to be given priority, and the salaries as well as conditions of educators need to be substantially improved through a collective agreement that needs to be signed as soon as possible, the Nationalist Party said during a press conference on Friday.

PN MP and Education Spokesperson Justin Schembri said that during a time in which the country is going through various difficulties that need to be addressed immediately, particularly in relation to the education sector, the government is instead choosing to focus on itself.

He continued that meanwhile, the PN is focused on the fact that the sectoral agreement for educators as well as the collective agreement within MCAST and ITS remain unfinished, “contrary to all the promises given by Robert Abela”.

Schembri referred to a parliamentary question asked by the PN, which found that one educator per week was resigning during the first scholastic term of this year. He continued that the parliamentary question in regard to the second scholastic term remains unanswered. “And so one worries that, unfortunately, this rate of educators resigning may have increased,” he remarked.

He said that leading up to the 2022 general election, Prime Minister Abela had emphatically promised that the government would be giving a significant increase to all educators, but that various things have happened since then which contradict this promise. Schembri referred to the statement made by the Malta Union of Teachers on the 10th of November 2023, in which the union called for a national strike on the 27th of November, after negotiations with the government had proven unsuccessful.

“This strike had the participation of almost 98% of educators,” he said, adding that this participation evidently confirmed that teachers and educators were not content with the way the government was treating their profession.

The Education Spokesperson continued that on the 13th of May 2024, the MUT declared that it had lost faith in the Industrial Relations Unit, which is the unit responsible for negotiating the packages with the union representatives.

PN MP Ivan Castillo said that the PN has held numerous conferences throughout the year in relation to this subject, during which he said that the PN explained how the IRU does not have the necessary resources to effectively fulfil its duties.

Castillo said that the IRU is made up of only two people dealing with a significant number of collective agreements, and who need to keep up with a large capacity of work. He continued that the PN explained in detail how important it was for the government to address the challenges faced by the IRU, so that it could keep up with its work and now allow collective agreements to fall behind and end up in situations such as this.

He said that the government does not care about educators, LSEs, nor parole officers. “The government is much more occupied with its own internal conflict,” he commented, “as well as the attacks on journalists, the magistrates, students, and attacks on everyone, including the workers.”

“The government has lost the plot,” concluded Castillo, adding that a PN government is the only alternative to ensure that challenges such as this are properly dealt with.

PN MP Bernice Bonello focused on how the situation is impacting students, as she said that the students are in situations where their exams are being postponed after weeks of preparation, or that students at the end of their studies and working on their thesis may not find the assistance that they need.

She said that this situation is being caused by the government, and that both educators and students are victims of its shortcomings.

“If you listen to the Minister for Education or the Parliamentary Secretary for Youths speak about the youth and students in Malta, they speak as if everything is going smoothly and there are no problems at all. However, the MCAST students tell them otherwise. They tell them that yes, there are problems, and the youth are suffering,” she said.

Bonello said that the entire country is suffering from this situation, as at the end of the day, having a good education system is beneficial for everyone.

Schembri concluded the conference by saying that it is crucial for the interests of the educators and the students to be met, as ultimately the whole country benefits by having a properly functioning education system.