The teachers’ union has strongly objected to the Budget proposal that school hours be staggered to tackle road congestion, insisting it would be unacceptable for teachers and students to pay the price for bad traffic management.

Stressing that the MUT had not been consulted on such a measure, president Kevin Bonello told Times of Malta students were already overloaded and extending school hours was out of the question.

“This is not on,” Mr Bonello said, adding he doubted whether it would solve traffic problems anyway, since these stemmed from other issues related to transport and road management.

Additionally, the union said, the government had signed a long-term agreement on public transport in 2012 that was not working and was “unacceptable”.

These are the issues that have to be addressed not school hours

“These are the issues that have to be addressed, not school hours. We have already staggered opening hours to meet government obligations in that contract,” Mr Bonello said. The union proposed a measure where students, particularly those attending secondary school, could be given a free pass to use public transport “as happens in other European countries”. It was high time for the public transport problem to be effectively addressed, it added.

As well as tackling the traffic congestion, such a measure would help address other problems, such as bullying on school transport where children were unsupervised.

The union also pointed out that the 10 per cent increase in education expenditure would not address the serious investment needed for the sector to provide quality education.

There was an increase of more than 2,000 foreign students in recent months, increasing recurring costs by some €8 million, while schools lacked staff and equipment.