In a bid to demonstrate their indebtedness to government employees who work in the psychoeducational sector (such as: student counsellors and learning support educators) - Minister for Education Justyne Caruana presided over the signing of a new 'Students Services Agreement' - a reform that will see an increase in salary progression scales for psycho-educational government employees.

This new scheme is a result of a collaborative initiative between the government's National School Support Services Department and the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT).

This effort to attract more people into these essential professions, as well as demonstrate the indebtedness to those who already work in this sector, began in 2015, MUT president Marco Bonnici noted.

Three sections of the educational sector are set to benefit from this scheme; the elementary Educational Support Practitioners (ESP), senior ESP's and principle ESP's.

The elementary ESP's will hereafter be able to progress to the 8th'scale salary bracket (formerly only being able to progress to scale 9), the senior ESP's will now be able to progress to scale 7, whilst the principle ESP's may henceforth progress to scale 6.

Further to these scale progressions, other allowances are being introduced, such as, the 'class allowance' and the 'disturbance allowance' which will see these employees benefit from up to 8% of their basic salary packet.

All in all, on average, government educational sector employees from at least ten schools may now see thousands of more euros added to their yearly salary, stated MUT Assistant General Secretary Christopher Vella.

Thanks to the continued endeavour to improve the conditions of Malta's government educational sector employees, the MUT has succeeded to resolve the obstacle they were presented with in 2018 - of not having enough head of school applications - to now receiving far more applications than there are available positions, noted Vella.

Vella said that having managed to put this far-reaching reform into place in the midst of a pandemic, demonstrates how much work the MUT and government carry out behind the scenes. 

He concluded by expressing his belief that the Maltese people should be proud of their government's educational sector - since even when faced with the extreme challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, it nonetheless succeeded in providing a continuous high standard flow of education - which in this regard, advantageously sets Malta apart from other countries.