MUT calls for better head teachers' conditions

The Malta Union of Teachers is extremely disappointed that the government does not seem prepared to raise the pay packet of head teachers whose workload has increased substantially, union president John Bencini said yesterday.

Schools were becoming more autonomous, with the result that head teachers now have to cope with "enormous responsibilities".

While head teachers have to handle thousands of liri to see to the daily running and maintenance of the school they run, their salary is not far off that of a teacher.

The salary of teachers who have been in service for 16 years is Lm7,652 and is the same as that of an assistant head. The salary of a head starts at Lm7,652, goes up to Lm7,712 after the first year of service; becomes Lm7,968 after the second year and Lm8,224 after the third year in office.

Head teachers often have to work throughout the summer at no extra payment.

Mr Bencini was replying to questions by The Times after he delivered the opening address to a conference for school administrators yesterday.

The conference, which focuses on "Heads of School at Work", is being held at the Howard Johnson Diplomat Hotel, in Sliema and will be concluded today.

Mr Bencini said that if the government keeps insisting it would not budge on the salary scales then head teachers should be given "decent allowances" to reflect the great responsibilities they had to shoulder.

According to the MUT, there are 75 head teachers in state primary schools and over 30 in the secondary sector. There are also 60 heads in Church schools.

Mr Bencini referred to a comment made by the Education Minister saying that maybe it was time that head teachers returned to teaching classes.

The practice in the UK, the MUT president said, was that heads kept one or two classes a week, but they were finding that the administrative work bogged them down, leaving them with no time for teaching.

"Where will heads find the time to teach classes, if on most days they are inundated with telephone calls and parents who call personally at the school to discuss their children's problems?

"How will heads find the time to visit classes to evaluate the performance of each teacher?

"You are going to get, as in any other profession, people who do not perform. If assessments on the performance of teachers are not carried out, how can the education system improve?"

The MUT was against heads taking on a managerial role where they would barely have the chance to speak to teachers in their school.