The Malta Union of Teachers is calling a mass rally for all educators to discuss and inform them about the various injustices that several members of the teaching profession are facing.

MUT president John Bencini explained to this newspaper that the rally, which will be held on 29 February at St Aloysius College, was being called for various reasons.

“One of the main reasons that it will be held is to discuss the arising injustices among educators,” he said.

Mr Bencini went on to say that while it is very important to invest in school buildings and amenities, it is just as important to invest in human resources.

“The union is very worried because the investment in human resources is not enough,” he said.

It seems that the government is more concerned with the number of students graduating instead of taking care of the people who are helping them reach that goal, said Mr Bencini.

“When negotiating the conditions of educators, we found that the government seems to give more importance to the number of graduates and are not giving the educators what they are due,” he said.

Mr Bencini also said that the union feels that the educators suffered a great injustice because reforms were made in other sectors, but not in theirs.

“We had made certain demands which were refused because we were told that these were going to cause a ripple effect. However, these demands were given to other sectors and, as a result, we feel that there isn’t a level playing field,” he said.

He explained that the union was not referring to an increase in wages.

“We are talking about allowances here – through the recent government reforms, the responsibilities of teachers increased considerably and they are not receiving what they are due,” said the union president.

During the rally, the issues of supply teachers, the situation at the Institute of Tourism Studies (ITS) and the Malta Council for Arts, Sciences and Technology (MCAST) will also be discussed.

Mr Bencini said the union was very worried about the situation at ITS and MCAST and added that, probably some time next week, a large meeting will be called for MCAST employees to tackle the situation.

He also said that the union also received several complaints about how interviews, more specifically their lack of transparency, for teaching posts were carried out.

“Several teachers wrote to the Office of the Prime Minister about this situation and we will be discussing it then,” he said.