The recent court judgement which condemned a particular teacher and a school to pay a substantial sum of money to the family of an injured student hardly came as a surprise to anyone who is familiar with current regulations and their loop holes. But it did come as a huge surprise, and a great shock, to all the educators out there who on a daily basis strive to do their best with their students.
Indeed one may argue that this sentence was a time bomb, in the sense that one would have expected this to happen any time soon, while at the same time everyone was hoping that it never did. While the court decision in itself is a major blow to the persons involved, its implications are wide and very highly worrying for all educators, and to a certain extent other professionals in similar circumstances.
In practical terms, this judgement has exposed the many risks that we pass through on a daily basis in daily situations. For example, in secondary schools we have a situation whereby between lessons there is an elapse of time until a teacher travels from one classroom to another, or even in teacher based classrooms, until the students travel from one classroom to another. Moreover, should teachers disallow students from visiting the toilet during class? Can a teacher, every time a student needs to take a pee, leave the class together with the rest of the students and accompany the student to the toilet? At the same time, what happens if this child injures him/herself during those few minutes while doing his/her business?
Some may argue that schools may use corridor supervisors, and this might solve a legal aspect of such a situation. But in reality, do schools afford this arrangement? Shall we ask teachers to refrain from teaching to guard the corridor or shall we employ extra personnel to perform this duty? Moreover, are security cameras in school a good idea? When one contextualises the sentence arguably security cameras may act as incriminators for the Heads of schools who are unaided by current lack of legislation, finding themselves in black holes of legal jargon open wide to any interpretation.
These are just a few thoughts that come to mind when one mulls over the court judgement in question. The MUT, rightly so, was inundated with calls and emails from very worried members who feel exposed to risk on a daily basis. The MUT has asked for an urgent meeting with the Ministry, which by the time of writing of this article, still has not taken place but is scheduled for the coming days.
Why the Ministry? We believe that the Ministry, particularly the Hon. Minister himself, has the role to assess the faults within current legislation affecting schools and educational institutions at large and as legislator, has the duty to fix the laws and regulations and tighten up any loop holes that are currently the order of the day. This is a situation where the current laws and legislation are leaving all educators helpless and literally at the mercy of circumstances beyond one’s control, and it is short of a miracle that more accidents of the nature reported in this case do not occur regularly.
In other countries, such as the UK, many schools have had to reduce play time for children for sheer fear of lawsuits in case of injuries. Is this what we really want? Let us think together and find solutions for the benefit of all.
Kevin Bonello is president of the Malta Union of Teachers