'No directives' to complementary teachers

The Malta Union of Teachers has denied issuing directives to complementary teachers, saying it only asked them to observe the remit of their role and not take over whole classes of students.

It said in a statement that the authorities' "invitation" for complementary teachers to give literacy lessons to whole classes was not only "obfuscating" their role, but could also set a precedent for similar occurrences and undermine the working conditions of teachers.

Last Saturday the Education Ministry charged the MUT with issuing directives to complementary teachers without informing the authorities.

But the union yesterday said that, in its regular meetings with the director general of education, it had repeatedly called for "due consideration of the important role of complementary and peripatetic teachers and the way they were being overloaded in order to cover for timetable exigencies in primary schools".