Casual lecturers will be paid by the end of the month after lengthy delays, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo promised yesterday.
Mr Bartolo was reacting to a report by Times of Malta that casual lecturing staff at the University of Malta and G.F. Abela Junior College regularly waited months to receive payment for their work.
One such lecturer said staff had been asked to submit a request for payment last December for work done since the start of the academic year but had still not received payment.
Mr Bartolo said he sympathised with the lecturers and others employed on a casual basis, such as adult educators, who were often “left on the periphery” and made to endure such delays.
“I understand the frustration and would like this to be done more expeditiously. It is not fair,” he said, adding that he would be meeting with education authorities to ensure delays were stopped.
50,000 – the number of new books purchased for schools
Mr Bartolo said State schools would only experience “minimal disturbance” during next month’s spring hunting referendum, thanks to the introduction of new equipment.
“Everyone involved in the education department gets a fright when they hear an election is coming, because of the impact it has on schools. This year, however, we want to mitigate that,” he said.
The voting booths, and other equipment set up in government schools hosting the April 11 vote will be easy to remove and not hinder any lessons or school activities, he said.
The minister said he had held meetings with the Electoral Commission as well as the Opposition to figure out the best way to minimise the disturbance to schools.
No school days will be lost when classrooms are transformed into voting stations and classroom furniture will not be shifted during school hours, he said.
Mr Bartolo was speaking on the front steps of the Luqa Primary School, during a visit to witness the government’s new literacy promotion policy in action.
Classrooms were brought to life by literacy ambassadors such as singer Ira Losco and television personality Xandru Grech, who read classic children’s books to encourage youngsters to start reading. Reading a passage about a red crab, Mr Bartolo jokingly warned the young students that, if they did not want to get pinched by any crabs, they should stay out of politics.
Returning to the policy, Mr Bartolo said the government had drawn up a 100-point plan to address Malta’s worrying literacy levels following a series of damning reports on reading.
Some 80 per cent of the policy had already been implemented and around 8,000 children had taken part in workshops, he said. Some 50,000 new books had also been purchased for schools, he said.
Agenda Bookshop yesterday donated several copies of popular educational book You Can Read to the primary school, as part of its effort to boost literacy.