Measures to tackle unmanageable behaviour at the former Ħamrun lyceum have yet to be implemented despite union directives being in place since last week.

The Malta Union of Teachers issued directives to teachers at the San Ġorġ Preca School as problems escalated.

One of the three directives refers to a specific student against whom “proper disciplinary action” has yet to be taken. Another instructs members to refuse to give any lessons to students not wearing the official uniform and the third sees staff not monitoring corridors without senior management present.

A union spokesman told this newspaper yesterday teachers at the Ħamrun schools were following the directives that came into force on Thursday.

The union is informed that the directives are being followed

“The union is informed that the directives are being followed, including the one about students without the official uniform,” the spokesman said.

This meant that students in classes with peers who were not wearing the official uniform were missing out on lessons.

According to the union spokesman, the college itself and the Directorate for Educational Services “seem to be working on the measures still to be implemented to tackle the issues at this school”.

“The union will be issuing any further instructions to its members on the way forward accordingly,” he said.

A one-hour strike by teachers at the school was called off at the last minute last month after the union and the Education Ministry reached agreement on an action plan following a lengthy conciliation meeting.

The plan included strategies that better address the needs of the school, the strengthening of the school management team, a revision of the school’s behaviour policy, deployment of additional teachers, assigning a receptionist with security and monitoring duties and an overhaul of correctional measures leaving no or adverse effects.

Times of Malta reported last week that some of the measures that were put into place were causing more trouble and were enticing more students to disobey, in turn making the situation worse.

claire.caruana@timesofmalta.com