A study commissioned by the Malta Union of Teachers has found that although the college system was a positive one, there were certain negative factors which needed to be explored.
These included an increase in the workload of teachers, which led them to feel overworked. Teachers also felt that many reforms had been introduced at the same time.
The research also uncovered a lack of communication and two realities - the way teachers and the administration saw things.
One example was mixed ability classrooms. While the administration said the system was working well, teachers were finding difficult to handle classrooms, which sometimes had too many students to be mixed ability.
The MUT will be making the whole study public on Tuesday during a conference.
For the studey, two independent researchers carried questionnaires with just under 1,500 people - a representative sample of people who worked in schools, and in-depth interviews with all schools principals, other people who worked in schools and the two director generals.
MUT president Kevin Bonello welcomed the removal of a clause in the law threatening lecturers and staff at the Institute of Tourism Studies with a €2,500 fine and up to six months in jail if they disclosed internal matters.
He also spoke problems state schools were facing because of the migration of students from one school to another.
Ta’ Paris Boys’ Secondary, for example, was being phased out and students were temporarily being moved to Sta Venera School, which was too small and a student basement with a very low ceiling was being turned into a classroom. This was not fair for students.
Other students were also being moved from Marsa Secondary to Zebbug. These were vulnerable students and the move would work against their benefit.
Mr Bonello said he had also heard that, next week, the principal of a government college was to launch his personal book at a school and during the launch students would be pulled out of class to fill the room. If true, this was not the right thing to do.
A spokesman for the Education Minister said later that it was true that a principal was launching a book at a school during which the school choir will sing and then return to class.