The Union of Professional Educators (UPE) has called for schools to shift online because of the increase in Covid-19 cases and the circulation of the new UK variant, which has been seen to be more transmissible in children.
“We need to go online; we are fed up with saying it time and time again. I am shocked by the number of Covid-19 cases and the number of educators catching the virus”, the union’s executive head Graham Sansone said in a YouTube video.
The UPE has been calling for schools to go online since they were set to restart following the Christmas holidays. It has continuously taken it upon itself to report what they call “alleged cases of Covid-19” within different schools across the island.
Sansone said that the situation in schools is a “disaster”.
“We now have a regulation in the country where in one household there can be four different bubbles only, but the educator can have around 20 to 100 different bubbles in one class. In a kindergarten class you have around 20 different students from different bubbles.”
Noting the government’s decision to ban contact sports for those under the age of 16, Sansone said that “children still go out during their school break time and play together, so let us be realistic; if we are stopping contact sports, let us stop the break time.”
The union, Sansone said, does not want students to miss school; but as cases increase, Sansone said that the online system is the best way to reduce the numbers and protect pupils and educators.
The Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) meanwhile have said that they are in constant contact with the authorities on the situation in schools, but noted that if expert advice shows that some type of further action should be taken and that politicians will be failing to take them, then there would be no alternative avenue than for the MUT to take steps as it always did.
The union said that it is following the situation on a number of fronts. On mitigation measures in schools and in education workplaces the MUT said that it is insisting with authorities for existing protocols to be adjusted according to feedback being received and according to the present situation.
On the vaccination effort, the MUT said that it had handed a list of schools where vaccinations have not begun being administered in the hope that the authorities start the process there as soon as possible.