The teachers’ union instructed its members not to participate in the Government’s pilot project to introduce tablet computers in schools until an agreement is reached on the matter.

In a statement yesterday, the Malta Union of Teachers said the Government had not consulted it about this project and it was only alerted to it through the media.

It was instructing members not to participate “to avoid creating a precedent without any agreement about practices that might be of detriment to the rest of the educators.”

During the election campaign, the Labour Party said it would give a free tablet computer to Year 4 schoolchildren to improve their IT literacy.

Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said the Government will launch a pilot project on the use of tablet computers during this scholastic year.

Reacting to the union’s statement, a spokesman said the ministry was in the process of preparing an implementation plan for the tablet pilot project, which will then be discussed with the Malta Union of Teachers. The pilot project will be introduced in a small number of schools later this scholastic year, he said.

In the statement, the teachers’ union also spoke about the sabbatical leave for teachers mentioned by Government. The union said it did not know any details about this measure and will be presenting its proposals to Government in the coming weeks.