The Malta Union of Teachers today called for the resignation of the board of governors of the Sacred Heart Foundation because of confusion in the organisational set-up of the school.

The MUT said the industrial dispute it had declared with the school had been discussed during two lengthy consultation meetings held at the Directorate for Employment and Industrial Relations.

It said the Board of Governors had not taken cognizance of the matters complained of and ignored the Union’s and the teachers’ appeals for a reassessment of the structures and roles of the board, the head of school and teachers.

It said the board had simply denied all allegations made against it.

The union earlier this month said that interference by the board had seen a succession of heads of school resign over the past five years.

The board said in a statement yesterday that the MUT had issued a directive to the school’s assistant head to refrain from deputising for the head during her absence.

The board said that the full text of the Sacred Heart School Foundation Instrument of government defining the roles of the various players; the School’s Financial Regulations; the Parent Teachers Association Statute; the clearly defined duties of the Head of School and of the Assistant Head of School, as described in the call for applications for these posts, could be read at http://sacredheartmalta.org.

The role of the principal, which was the role that was primarily attacked, was also defined. The principal, the board said, had two roles - the applicant and the license holder of the school and the person responsible for the school ethos.

The board said it was not true that management and teachers did not feel free to take initiatives as the union had claimed. Since its inception in September 2004, the board operating the foundation never hindered the management or the teachers from taking any initiatives as long as these were within the parameters of any self respecting well organised school.