Some 150 primary school classes were without teachers while the Education Ministry was claiming that everything was set for the start of the new scholastic year, the Malta Union of Teachers said in a press conference on Monday.
The MUT decried how in a last-minute panicked attempt, the Education Ministry transferred a number of educators to different schools so that they could take up positions as primary school teachers in different schools.
Amongst those transferred were teachers who specialised in literature, those who offer complimentary support, those who support deaf students, those who support students in nurture classes, those who offer support in hospitals and others who specialise in different subjects amongst others, the union said.
“These teachers have for months been hearing about this supposedly finished plan [for the new scholastic year], but then received an email or telephone call on Saturday ordering them that from that same day they have to forget the service in which they are specialised and report for work in another school to take over a primary class instead,” the union said.
This massive exercise, which meant that an estimated 150 classes had been without teachers, has left teachers both angry and disappointed as they turned to the union for help.
Asked by The Malta Independent whether, even given that there were similar situations to this last January, the union was considering any industrial action, MUT President Marco Bonnici said that the union had already taken action to protect those affected by this latest act by the ministry.
"We will keep taking the necessary action, but instead of choosing dialogue to find a solution, they chose to leave it till the last minute to issue these transfers so that nobody could protest or take action against them," Bonnici said.
The union said that it had already declared an industrial dispute as soon as the information which was coming from the ministry appeared to not match with that coming from schools, particularly on the teacher shortage in primary schools.
The union said that it has therefore issued a directive to teachers involved in this debacle so to protect their interests, since there was no possibility for the union to discuss and/or object to the ministry about these cases.
In a press conference on Monday, the union said that it can confirm that the transfers were clearly timed so that the affected teachers and the MUT which represents them can do nothing besides accepting every injustice in this situation.
The union said that it was informed that the ministry had resorted to the courts, rather than to dialogue, in order to stop them from protecting the interests of educators.
“This deplorable behaviour by the ministry is symptomatic of an oppressive leadership which is ready to commit injustices against teachers, ready to destroy whole services offered to thousands of students and leave them without support, and is ready to do everything to cover the lie it tried to sell when it said that everything was set for the opening of the scholastic year,” the union said.
The ministry, the union said, had chosen to muzzle educators and the MUT – even if past attempts failed.
“The MUT will not be intimidated by this oppressive behaviour and is going to keep protecting educators’ interests, both in court and everywhere else,” they said.
Bonnici was also asked for the union's thoughts on vaccination against Covid-19 being made mandatory for those working in schools, to which he said that if it is not being enforced elsewhere in the country then it shouldn't be enforced or made mandatory for teachers.