I read with interest John Bencini’s Opinion Serious problems facing the teaching profession in Malta (TMID, 14 April). Although Malta is a free democratic country, and hence everyone is free to say whatever he wants, I expect that a person backs what he says with reliable sources.

The MUT president stated that “a number of teachers leave the teaching job after a short period.” Can we have official statistics and please convert them into percentages? Come on, from about 6,000 teachers one would obviously expect a good number of them to quit their jobs after some time. However, it’s percentage resignations that should be quoted in order to be able to compare with other professions, like the health care profession.

He also stated that “bad working conditions are often the reason why teachers are not happy in their profession. It is mostly due to an excessive amount of work”. What about employees in the health sector and the civil servants, who work under pressure and at times even take work home after eight to nine hours of work? It is not rare that many persons in managerial positions have to work late or after hours, without even being compensated in their wage.

Again, I really do not know what better conditions of work they are expecting! Do teachers want to stay at home all year long and receive monthly salaries and bonuses as well?! Funnily enough in the evenings (including public holidays), when many of them give private tuition non-stop, in garages packed with students from 3pm till late in the evenings, they never complain of exhaustion or better conditions of work. Perhaps if the government starts paying teachers by the hour, it wouldn’t be a bad idea altogether!

Probably the reason why more University students opt for secondary school teaching is that at primary level, it is relatively harder. In a way, I do not blame them. But this all shows that students are choosing teaching as their future career not because they are really dedicated to teaching as a vocation, but because of the attractive package. Let us not forget that recently the MUT had a dispute on the contact time. It wanted to reduce it from 24 to 22 hours a week. But then, after having “free” time at school, they still complain that they have a lot of corrections and preparatory work to make at home.

I think that the problem with teachers in Malta is that they have won several glorious achievements from consecutive governments and they have now grown up as if nothing is nothing!

They always want more, and more from the taxpayers’ contributions. This is like when the parents spoil their children by giving them practically everything that they ask for. We all know what happens.

The government must be fair with all of its employees. If the teachers’ conditions are improved, I would expect that in return, all other government employees have their working conditions improved and working hours reduced to 35 hours a week with the same full salary.

Jonathan Debono

Msida