Parents have written to the Education Minister to seek his help in solving what they say is a crisis at St Albert the Great College.

The school was in the spotlight all through summer after its headmaster Mario Mallia was dismissed. The Malta Union of Teachers has taken the matter before an industrial tribunal. The union said that 20 teachers have resigned since.

In a statement, parents of children attending the college said that they “are deeply concerned about the crisis that the school is facing, and with the negative repercussions that are affecting our children”.

They are also preoccupied about our children’s health, safety and well-being.

They said that the situation since the beginning of the scholastic year has “rapidly deteriorated from bad to worse, despite the assurances that we have received from the college’s administration”, seeing that “nearly a quarter of the College’s staff members have resigned”

The parents added that they are worried “due to the fact that our children have already missed a considerably large number of hours from their learning and the indications show that these missed lessons shall increase in the coming weeks, with irreversible repercussions especially on those students soon to be sitting for their SEC exams”.

Students who need most support in their learning process are the most disadvantaged in this situation, the parents contended, adding that there.is “a lack of communication from the management of the school”.

It is evident that the situation will not be solved soon enough and there is “fear that in a few weeks, the situation can collapse totally to the detriment of our children”.

“Therefore, we parents/guardians of students at St. Albert the Great College, are requesting that the Minister for Education and all who hold the competent authority over our children’s education, implement all that is necessary to step in to ensure that the contingency plan announced by His Excellency Archbishop of Malta can come to effect together with a healing process for this educational community,” the parents said.