Teacher ratings

I refer to Joseph Muscat's letter regarding teacher harassment complaints.

The MUT's press release on teacher harassment from school management staff makes it very clear that the incidents reported occurred only in a very small number of schools and concerns only a small number of school administrators. In press conferences and meetings for members subsequent to the press release, MUT officials stated very clearly a number of times that the vast majority of school administrators in Maltese state schools are doing their job professionally and their relationship with staff is excellent. The press release concerned was sent to all heads of school and all MUT members have the right to call on the Teachers' Institute at their convenience so as to see the PR in person.

Regarding the Performance Management Programme (PMP) the MUT never asked for the "outstanding rating" to be removed. Rather, the union has been and still is insisting with the authorities concerned that there should not be any ratings of any kind but rather, as in procedures followed by most European countries, the administrator gives feedback on his staff with comments where appropriate, with the members of staff having the right to reply and to contest the administrator's reply if necessary. These suggestions come about after various reports of misuse and misinterpretation of ratings, especially where work not necessarily related to school development plans and teachers' job descriptions is concerned as well as several consultation processes with teachers' unions across Europe. In this way, a teacher who is outstanding or otherwise can be certified as such by his/her superiors without being labelled into ratings that have proved year after year to be the cause of much animosity between members of staff and their superiors more than anything else.

Mr Muscat rightly mentions that the MUT represents heads of school and assistant heads. The MUT is proud to have within its council a number of heads and assistant heads that have an impeccable track record as teachers and administrators. It is in this light that the MUT council has always been decidedly against ratings in the PMP because it is of major concern to the union that heads of school and assistant heads have to "rate" their staff with all the implications that such ratings carry with them. PMPs should serve to unite the staff with their administrators into a whole multi-disciplinary team that works in harmony for the benefit of the students rather than to create major divides and tension between all concerned.