The board of governors of the Convent of the Sacred Heart School Foundation has denied allegations made by the Malta Union of Teachers earlier this month and which led to industrial action being taken at the school.

The board said in a statement that the MUT issued a directive to the school’s assistant head to refrain from deputising for the head during her absence on September 24.

This union said it issued the directive following unilateral decisions concerning the management and operation of the Junior School.

But the MUT, the board said, never specified which these unilateral decisions were and made a number of misleading assertions instead.

The board said that throughout this year, it took three decisions concerning the school:

· It approved the purchase of a laptop and a projector for each classroom in the primary school, as well as a training course for teachers in the creative use of ICT in the classroom;

· A four week induction session in August/September for pupils joining the Junior School in Year 1; and

· Changes in the Junior School timetable, based on suggestions by the Junior School headmistress.

The board said that it was not true that five heads of the Junior School resigned during the last seven years.

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 also not true that management and teachers did not feel free to take initiatives. 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.

It had that had the MUT acted in compliance of article 15 of the agreement between the Church authorities and the Malta Union of Teachers for Teaching Grades in Church Schools and held discussions before resorting to action, all these misunderstandings would have been avoided.

Other matters reported were the papers including the allegation that the MUT requested the Board of Governors to resign are completely unfounded, it said.