Monday’s incident, when a three-year-old boy wandered out of Fgura’s Skolasajf, sparked a debate on the importance of ensuring children are always supervised. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Entire classrooms will have to accompany one child to the bathroom if safety recommendations by the Education Ministry are taken on board, the teachers’ union has said.

The recommendations, drafted by a legal consultant to the ministry, call for students to be supervised at all times during school hours.

MUT president Kevin Bonello interpreted this to mean that since classrooms only had one teacher, he or she would not be able to accompany students to the bathroom without abandoning the rest of the class.

“If this is done, we will have teachers forced to take entire groups of students to the bathroom at the same time.

“It doesn’t make sense, students aren’t robots – they can’t be forced to use the bathroom at the same time,” he said.

The safety recommendations were issued after a three-year-old boy wandered out of a school and was found crying in the middle of a main road in Fgura on Monday.

The boy, who was attending a Skolasajf summer school, had left class to go to the bathroom but somehow managed to slip out of the school unnoticed by staff.

Students aren’t robots – they can’t be forced to use the bathroom at the same time

The terrified child spent some 30 minutes outside the school grounds and eyewitnesses said he was lucky to have navigated the arterial road without being hit by a car.

The legal letter sent to the Foundation for Educational Services, which is responsible for the State summer school, informed staff that “at no time are students to be left unaccompanied”.

The letter also informed the foundation that staff would be liable for any injuries suffered by students attending Skolasajf.

Mr Bonello, however, told Times of Malta the union had written its own letter calling for a reform of the “unmerited” legal responsibility placed on teaching professionals.

“If a child is injured on his way to the bathroom, we can’t expect teachers to be responsible for this,” he said, adding that those responsible for the educational centre should be held to account.

Instead of having teachers abandon the classroom, Mr Bonello said the government should employ hall monitors to supervise children who leave the room.

“This is done in many institutions and works perfectly,” he said.

These suggestions were welcomed by one primary school teacher, who said her 15 students went to the bathroom countless times a day.

“I try to keep track of all the students who go to the bathroom but you’d be surprised how often they need to go at that age,” she said.