School closures related to the Covid-19 pandemic have led some primary students to lack basic skills upon their physical return to school, MUT president Marco Bonnici confirmed with The Malta Independent on Sunday.

Over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, hundreds of students found themselves receiving their education at home through online learning. They had to adapt to the so-called “new normal”. From their academic success to their social skills and mental health, the pandemic made a significant impact which is being felt by primary teachers.

Speaking with this newspaper, Bonnici said that most teachers in all sectors, including state, Church and private schools are seeing that some of their students require added support on certain basic skills as they are concerned about the learning lost during the pandemic.

Last year, the permanent secretary at the education ministry, Frank Fabri, amended the policy on school attendance to avoid parents and families from being penalised. A month later, school attendance dropped from 90% to 75%. Former Education Minister Owen Bonnici had said that students who did not attend school were either classified as vulnerable or were just cases of abseenteeism.

Around a week before the start of the new scholastic year, school attendance was once again made compulsory, reversing a controversial policy that allowed parents to keep their children at home due to the pandemic.

Consequently, a number of students missed out on school, thus missing out on learning basic academic skills such as writing and reading.

Bonnici highlighted that “more support is needed for the Early Years in Malta as teachers are being overloaded with work caused by the loss of basic skills in their students. However, this is quite a challenge due to one problem”.

He made reference to the recent claims made by the MUT that some 150 primary school classes were without teachers. The MUT decried how in a last-minute panicked attempt, the Education Ministry transferred a number of educators to different schools so they could take up positions as primary school teachers in different schools.

“Although support for the Early Years is needed, teachers in the complementary sector and literacy support are not available to provide this support as these have been transferred elsewhere. This is the main problem that we are currently seeing,” Bonnici said.