The Malta Union of Teachers has expressed concern at contracts the Directorate for Educational Services is signing with Kunsill Malti ghall-Isport, leasing school grounds to KMS for a number of years.
The council, however, denied MUT's allegations in a reply it issued in the afternoon.
It said it was writing to the minister to explain its concerns and demand further involvement of heads of schools as well as an urgent revision of contracts where schools might be experiencing problems. "School administrators will not be held responsible for and damages incurred as a direct or indirect result of use of public property by third parties," it said.
The MUT added it believed it was the government's duty to ensure that students' and schools' interests were given top priority
"While the MUT is in favour of promotion of sport and the involvement of the community in schools, it cannot condone situations whereby heads of schools are bypassed and ignored and the needs of the students and the schools are not even listened to.
"Moreover the union cannot understand how the KMS is then being allowed to lease these school grounds to third parties, namely football clubs most of which already own their own premises, resulting in a situation whereby all pitches are being converted to football pitches, with hardly any consideration for other sport disciplines."
MUT said that that another issue of concern was that advertising space was out of the school's hands, potentially opening the door for advertising which was harmful to students. Moreover, schools, some of which were in need of major refurbishment, would not be benefiting from any funds from these agreements.
The MUT said KMS was hardly in a position to monitor the school grounds it would be leasing as it had a chronic lack of human resources, as stated by the Commissioner for Children in 2010.
The council said in a reply that there were currenlty 34 sports organisations which used the sports facilities of 16 schools after school hours. Twelve of them invested around 1.5 million euros to impvoe the facilities.
The tracks at the Sant'Injazju and San Benedittu colleges were also opened for public use and around 700 people were making use of them. The track at the new Mosta schools was also to be opened for public use in the coming weeks.
The council said it was not true that heads of schools were being ignored and whenever a new contract was signed, a draft was passed on to the department of educational services to consult with the respective principal and head.
It was also not true that student needs were not being addressed. These contracts were making more quality sports facilities available for a longer period of time.
Moreover, facilities were being converted into football grounds. In fact, there were more than 10 sports disciplines being practices under these contracts.
It was also not true that the educational authorities could not control the advertising at the facilities. Advertising had to be compatible with Education Department policy. And schools were not held responsible for damages, as MUT had claims.
The council said the organisations benefiting from the facilities were voluntary and did not operate for profit. They were also helping sprout a culture in favour of sports among the Maltese people.