The Malta Union of Teachers has directed all teaching grades at Naxxar boys secondary school to 'work to rule' as from Monday.

"In view of the recent incidents concerning various members of staff at the school, all members of the teaching grades working at Naxxar boys secondary school are hereby directed to follow a Work to Rule directive as of Monday 21st April 2008," the union said.

"The MUT will monitor the situation closely and will decide in the coming weeks whether these directives will be lifted or increased.

The directive came just hours after the school was visited by Education Minister Dolores Cristina. The MUT complained a few days ago about various cases of violence against teachers in the school. It had warned that it could resort to industrial action unless this problem was effectively tackled by the government.

Mrs Cristina said Naxxar school included a number of students whose behaviour was ‘difficult' and the authorities had therefore embarked on a pilot project where a prefect of discipline was engaged in an effort to understand what was making these students behave in this way, and how the situation could be tackled.

The minister stressed that any violence, whether it was children on children, children on teachers or parents on teachers, would not be tolerated. Discipline was of key importance in a person's upbringing. It was important, however, that discipline at school was followed up with discipline at home.