Many students have started or are about to start their annual examinations, and through this letter I would like to give them my good wishes. I am sure that many of them have studied hard and will reap the results they desire.

What I would like to write about is the fact that some teachers did not plan well at all. I have heard parents comment that their children’s teachers’ did not do any revision in the final weeks and kept on introducing new subjects simply because they had not managed to cover the whole syllabus throughout the year. By doing this, they increased the pressure on the students.

On one occasion, an art teacher was absent for most of the year and then expected her students to condense all the work they should have done over the third term in the final week before the examinations started.

Is there any form of planning? Do the schools know who they are employing? Does the Malta Union of Teachers know that this is happening, or is it too busy fighting for an extra euro and more holidays for teachers?

It is always a matter of give and take. But it seems that teachers just want to have the whole cake and eat it, crumbs and all.

Maria Caruana

Mosta