MUT calling a teachers’ strike is evidence of the boiling point that negotiations between the union and the government have reached. The sectorial agreement lapsed in 2013, the same year that Labour came into power. But let’s not fool ourselves in thinking that Muscat and Bartolo were only aware of this for the last 5 years.  Bartolo himself was Labour’s spokesperson for education for all the years that Labour spent in Opposition and he spent those years making sure to raise hell and fury on teachers’ working conditions.

Even though the 2007 agreement then reached between Louis Galea and the MUT was described by the union as a ‘historic moment’, Bartolo was quick to take on the plight of teachers even before that agreement could be fully implemented. Despite agreement by MUT to the 2007 agreement and once again although its own President called this agreement a ‘historic moment’, only a few months after its signature, the Union wanted it revised. The then government quickly sought to conclude an addendum which came into force in August 2010.

While the previous government negotiated an agreement twice in three years, the current government has done very little to conclude a new agreement in the last four years. The teaching profession desperately needs a new agreement to regulate their working conditions. Since 2010 not only have professional salaries and the monetary demands of a good standard of living changed, but also because the demands on and environment in which teachers have to teach have changed drastically.

Most think of the teachers’ agreement as one which simply includes salary, workload, work time and what every other worker has in his contract of employment. In reality, the 2007 agreement was one which sought to provide teachers not only with good working conditions but the MUT and the Nationalist government shared a vision for education and both knew that what was needed was not only a better salary but also a number of structures that could support teachers and all educators. Basically, it represented a turning point in our education system and both government and union knew that for this to take place educators needed support from other professions, new tools for teaching and many more resources for the classroom.

Teachers were for a while trying to adapt to these changes and finding ways of interacting well with the support structures that that same agreement promised. However, now teachers are telling me that those support structures which they need to be able to teach and educate a mixed ability class have been depleted. Now teachers tell me that their workload has increased drastically. Teachers complain that while Bartolo spent his time in Opposition speaking of teachers’ reform fatigue, his almost five years as Minister of Education have been characterised by a series of reforms.

Teachers are not afraid of reforms but they know that the depletion of support structures in education leads to poor standards. They do not want to be professionals in a system the outcome of which is poor education results. Teachers want to be able to walk with their head high as a respected professional. To do this, they first need the same person who for years fuelled the fire, to turn his words into action. Educators tell me, Minister Bartolo has for the last almost five years held the power to make what he preached a reality. Yet words alone don’t make things real.

Usually this government’s way out of any crisis is three fold:  first always blame the previous administration and then either throw the problem under the carpet or throw money at the crisis. In this teachers’ crisis the government is unfortunate enough that neither of his usual solutions are effective solutions. The more this government blames the previous administration, the more it reminds teachers that this Labour government fooled them. It played and continues to play all the musical notes educators want to hear, but it does not dance their dance.

The government chose to bury its head in the sand the first day it took office. It knew it will be facing a shortage of teachers and professionals to continue sustaining the education structures that we have as much as it knew that it cannot deplete support services. If the Ministry failed to realise this in these last five years, then this means that Minister Bartolo has run a Ministry incapable of being synchronised with its most precious assets, schools and teachers.  The teacher shortage we are facing now was reflected in the number of teachers leaving the profession in these last years and the small number of youths taking up this profession. Is it possible that Minister Bartolo did not have the foresight to realise this? I refuse to think that this would have passed by Minister Bartolo’s sharpness of thought. But then, what or who has been holding him back from taking the necessary action and when will he turn his words into action?

 

 

Therese Comodini Cachia is a PN MP and spokesperson on education