MUT plans to make disputed school visit

The teachers’ union is refusing to meet the Education Ministry for conciliation talks until it is certain it will not be stopped from visiting a school in Mosta.

It has also told the school that its officials will be back on Monday and will not budge until allowed in.

The clash arose on Wednesday when the Malta Union of Teachers said it was prevented from entering Mosta Primary School A to investigate allegations of overcrowding in the kindergarten classes.

Education Minister Dolores Cristina rebutted the union’s claims, saying there never was any intention to stop them from entering, as long as such visits were carried out in agreement with the education authorities and in a way which was not detrimental to lessons. But Mr Bencini said a serious precedent had been set with Wednesday’s incident. “I have visited hundreds of schools since 1996 and was never stopped. I have never heard of any union being stopped visiting places of work.”

The union decided to drop in on the school after receiving various complaints from its members of overcrowding in the kindergarten. Mr Bencini suspected that the size of the rooms did not fall in line with the School Regulations Act.

“Until the union is certain it will have access to the school, it will not attend any meetings with the ministry,” he said.

A ministry spokesman said no official complaints had ever been made about overcrowding in the kindergarten classrooms.

Besides, these classrooms fell in line with the law, with 255 kindergarten students split into 13 classrooms — an average of 20 children in each classroom.

The maximum number of kindergarten students in one classroom reached 28, made up of two groups. The school was not exceeding the legal limit, which allowed a maximum of 30 children per classroom, the spokesman said.

But Mr Bencini was adamant that the union would visit the kindergarten and informed the school headmaster that they would be there on Monday at 10 a.m.

“And this time, we will not budge from there – they will have to get the police to move us,” he said.