The budget contains many positive educational measures one can discuss and work on, the Malta Union of Teachers said this morning.
It said in a statement these include courses for young people and apprenticeship schemes, the sabbatical for teachers and the increase in funding for University of Malta and its change in funding system.
With regards to the pilot project to introduce tablets, this still needed to be discussed to make sure that such changes were part of the on-going long-term educational reforms and not just a novelty token. The MUT also needed to make sure that this pilot project would not add further burdens on educators who were still catching up with a multitude of reforms.
The MUT said it was in favour of the supervision scheme for children before school. However, a similar scheme that was underfunded and understaffed was already in place. The union hoped that there would be proper investment in this scheme this time round.
It said it was definitely in favour of the decision to open free childcare centres. However, this needed substantial investment and proper working conditions to attract professional staff to take care of children of a very young age.
The MUT recommended that unlike previous experiences, the provision of resources including human resources within these centres would be congruent to the budget allocated.
It acknowledged positively the Government’s proposal to build five new schools and to modernise the existing structures. The Union expected the Government to provide it with further details during the coming weeks to guide members accordingly.
The Budget speech, the MUT said, also indicated that there would be more autonomy at a local school level. The MUT agreed with the plan and had suggested such measures in the past. It said it would appreciate if more details on this were published and recommended that heads of schools were not burdened with further bureaucracy.
The MUT expected the budget to tackle perennial problems such as informal education within the family context and in the community as well as transport problems for students and schools. It hoped the Government would provide concrete solutions on these in the coming months.
The MUT also embraced the Government’s stance against tax evasion and welcomed the commitment to reduce utility bills.