The Malta Union of Teachers said that one cannot continue to have more shelved documents without an analysis of findings and actions to solve issues that emerge.

In a statement, the MUT said it is following with interest the findings of the research, entitled "Educators in the State School Sector: The Challenges of an Ever-demanding Profession", carried out by Prof. Mark Borg, which was initiated at the time by Minister Evarist Bartolo upon MUT’s request.

It was launched in October 2019, in a joint press conference by the Ministry for Education and the MUT, and the research results were published today.

These results delve deeply into the challenging situations faced by educators and is an important standalone document, the MUT said in a statement. They are not surprising for the MUT but should be an eye-opener for everyone. Furthermore, these outcomes should be considered in conjunction with many other studies conducted along the years, including the research on the college systems conducted in 2012 on behalf of the MUT (entitled "Towards a Quality Education for All – The College System" also by Prof. Mark Borg with Dr Joseph Giordmaina), the research carried out by the Faculty of Education in 2018 (entitled "Teachers’ Professional Lives and Careers" by Dr Michelle Attard Tonna and Dr James Calleja) and many other studies carried out by individuals.

The situation that emerges is quite clear, and the MUT said it is passing this message to the Ministry for Education: we cannot have more shelved documents without an analysis of findings and actions to solve issues that emerge. The MUT said it shall be pressing with the Government to carry out this process and will be proposing the setting up of an immediate action group with representatives of the Ministry for Education, the MUT and other stakeholders to carry out an analysis of the findings and to propose solutions. The educational sector cannot afford to have more documents which are shelved.