(Adds Curia's reply)

The number of children in Malta who do not speak or understand English or Maltese is on the increase, MUT president Kevin Bonello said.

Addressing a news conference on the new scholastic year, Mr Bonello said the government had no projections of how many children from different countries were entering the educational system and what was needed to cater for them.

The programme tailored for these children was full up and some children on the waiting list were not going to school as they could not understand what was going on.

He said that projections needed to be made at least three months before the beginning of the scholastic year to avoid crisis management.

Mr Bonello noted that inclusion was a headache in many schools.

Although it worked in most cases, there were instances were it was not.

Children with certain health conditions and disabilities were not learning and were holding back their classmates.

“A solution must be found to these few, extreme cases,” he said.

He noted that the government had launched research on the inclusion system at all schools. Results should be published around December.

Mr Bonello called for a concrete revision of the primary school syllabus to make place for skills children needed in life, such as entrepreneurial skills. He noted that there were subjects, such as religion, with a vast syllabus and irrelevant details.

"I'm not talking about principles but details, such as who crossed which desert.... These can be studied if the student chooses to at secondary level," he said stressing he was not saying religion should be removed.

The union had long been saying it did not make sense that government had control over all syllabi except religion, which was handled by the Curia. 

Mr Bonello said that laptops given to teachers some eight years ago had become obsolete. The MUT had proposed that teachers should be provided with funds and allowed to decide what technology they needed in class so long as the specifications were reached.

However, the government informed the union it had bought new laptops and parts.

Teachers, he said, also had minor problems with interactive whiteboards.

Mr Bonello also spoke about problems with morning transport.

There were “inhumane" cases of children picked up at 7am when they start school at 8.30am.

It was true there were breakfast clubs but the problem was one of a lack of operators and certain buses had to carry out double or triple trips.

The MUT has proposed that children should be provided with tickets for public transport, as happened in other countries.

Mr Bonello listed the electoral promises that did not materialise including: sabbatical leave, being able to transfer years of experience from one school to another, and discrimination regarding maternity leave for women working in state schools.

CURIA'S STATEMENT

In a statement later today, the Curia said that according to an agreement between the Holy See and Malta on Catholic Religious Instruction and Education in Church Schools, signed in 1989, the teaching of the Catholic religion had to be in conformity with the doctrine of the Church.

Such teaching had to follow the syllabi and methods established by the Maltese Episcopal Conference, which also had the right to draw up or select the students’ text-books and the teachers’ guide.

It said that members of the Church Secretariat for Catechesis had regular contact with the education authorities to continue to improve the curricula and materials offered to Maltese students of religion.