Referring to the letter on Spoiled teachers by Jonathan Debono (TMID, April 23) I am still waiting for official percentage figures that show how many teachers have resigned during a particular period. It is only then that we can compare with other sectors of workers to see whether teachers are saying the truth or bluffing. I think it is pretty obvious that from so many thousands of teachers, you would expect a number of them to resign but it is percentage figures that matter in this case.

Mr/Ms C Mallia (TMID, 29 April) is deeply concerned about the fact that the teachers’ work does not stop when the bell rings at 2.30pm. However, I have serious doubts that all teachers take work home. We are not fools. It is also really unfair that all teachers take the same merit. But anyway, let me give them the benefit of the doubt by assuming that all teachers take work home. But I tell Mr/Ms Mallia and company to rest assured that no one is expecting them to take work home. So, after all the children leave school, why not stay at work till 4.30pm and complete your work there? Would you like this idea?

“It is not easy to spend a whole day with 25 children” said Mr/Ms Mallia. I can say: “It’s not easy to spend a day in a 25-bedded sick patients’ ward for a much longer working day!” No one is saying that teaching is not stressful but it would be rather unfair to pretend that teaching is the only stressful job that exists.

Mr/Ms Mallia is trying to justify that working fewer hours and having more holidays are meant to address the stress at schools and the fact that they all carry on working after school. But if you have such wonderful privileges, why do you still keep on complaining that you encounter stress and about loads of work at home? So, Mr Debono was right when he said that teachers are spoiled because no matter what the government of the day gives them, they still keep on complaining and are never satisfied.

What about receiving a summer bonus for not going to work? And what about having half days of the already reduced working days without making up for them as other workers do during the rest of the year prior to summer?

Well, perhaps these super fabulous conditions are now attributed to violence at schools as this is their current main issue. Come on, as usual teachers take an advantage by putting all teachers in the same unbearable situation.

Although there are much fewer hospitals than schools, even in the health sector there is a particular hospital where one is expected to see violent and strange behaviour. As a matter of fact, when you park inside this hospital you immediately see signs saying “parking at your own risk”. But this does not mean that all the health sector employees should take advantage of this situation and threaten to close down all hospitals!

Now, as there are “unusual” patients, there are unfortunately also hyper or violent students that happen to be concentrated in a particular school(s). What needs to be done is that the workers concerned should be rotated every, say, two years as it would be unfair for them to remain at such difficult places of work.

Charles Micallef

Fgura