Teachers' dispute looming

The Malta Union of Teachers said it would declare a dispute with the government on October 13 unless it was informed when negotiations on its sectoral agreement will start.

The negotiations were meant to have been concluded by July.

Addressing a news conference on the occasion of Teacher's Day, to be celebrated on Sunday, union president John Bencini said yesterday the MUT was not expecting an increase in salaries but it had made a number of proposals aimed at improving the quality of education.

One such proposal was having smaller classes so that students could be given more individual attention. Having smaller classes, Mr Bencini said, was a possibility in view of a downward trend in the school population, reflecting the reduced birth rate. Giving an example, he said there had been a drop of up to 3.1 per cent in the number of students starting primary school, or 600 fewer students.

The government was, however, resisting the union's request for smaller classes, preferring to have fewer classes instead, he said.

Pointing out that teaching posts were close to saturation point, Mr Bencini said that this year only about 30 per cent of the 335 applicants for teaching posts had as yet been employed.

The only areas where there was a shortage of teachers was in sciences, home economics and computer studies. There was an oversupply in all the remaining subjects.

He said another 215 would be graduating B.Ed and 80 PGCE next year and another 250 had applied to start the B.Ed course. The university, Mr Bencini said, should start warning students applying for certain subjects that they would be facing difficulties in finding a job.

Mr Bencini also explained the union's position on inclusive education, saying that although it was all for it, there was abuse, with students who would be much better off in special schools being sent to mainstream classrooms. Some of the children would be much better off at a special school receiving physiotherapy.

There was currently no permanent structure to decide who should and should not attend mainstream schools. There was only a part-time statementing board which decided whether a child required a facilitator. Once a child was allocated a facilitator, s/he was never reassessed to see if s/he still required the facilitator or if s/he needed further assistance.

Mr Bencini said there were also too many one-to-one facilitators - 630, who were costing the state Lm2.5 million, and the number could not continue to increase.

He stressed the need for a specialised unit run by trained personnel to provide facilitators with on-the-job training.

Mr Bencini underlined the importance of setting up a teaching council on the Scottish model. The government had promised the union it was committed to putting this on its agenda years ago but nothing had as yet materialised.

The MUT wanted the council to be a regulatory body with a key role in promoting standards and determining action against teachers found to be underperforming.

Mr Bencini said 30 million boys and 70 million girls around the world never went to school - a "shameful situation".

The MUT, he said, was celebrating Teachers' Day conscious of the great importance of quality education. The union had been consistent in its insistence on sufficient funding, as this was a key requirement.

But, unfortunately, reports from several countries indicated that many governments were still trying to make cuts in their education budgets.

The MUT had for many years advocated increased decentralisation of schools as long as funding and greater resources were given to them. For it was evident that decentralisation without sufficient financial means increased inequalities in society and between schools.

The union said Maltese teachers had always been the pillars of education as they helped pupils develop critical skills, imparted care values and helped students open up new perspectives, possibilities and hope.

To teach was not simply the transmission of knowledge, it was to inspire, realise the potential of every child and offer him or her new dimensions, Mr Bencini said.