A new school set up for 240 students who left secondary school without any 'O' level certificates has only attracted 40, reflecting a lack of planning and foresight, the Malta Union of Teachers said today.

Union president Kevin Bonello, commenting this morning on the opening of the new scholastic year, said better planning was needed in several sectors of the education sector.

Among them was how to deal with the children of foreign workers and migrants.

In the past scholastic year, he said, there were some 2000 such children, who were placed in state school classrooms when they did not know Maltese and English. Most were the children of East European workers.

He said the induction system followed so far had not been effective. Not only did the children not know English or Maltese, but they came from differing educational systems. He suggested that a specialised centre should be set up to cater for the needs of such children. 

Mr Bonello said the union has protested with the government and declared an industrial dispute over its unilateral decision to introduce a programme on the Great Siege in primary schools.

There was nothing wrong with the programme itself, but it was absorbing far too many teachers and taking too much time, denying pupils time for other subjects such as music, drama and art. Because of this programme, he said, teachers did not have the required slots provided in their industrial agreement, in order to plan their lessons. 

Mr Bonello reiterated his criticism of bad recruitment practices in some church schools. He said one particular school was dismissing teachers in their probationary period in an unjustified manner, and replacing them by people who were unqualified. The issue is being discussed with the Archbishop. 

MINISTRY REACTION

In a reaction, the Ministry of Education said the Guze Ellul Mercer School for those who ended secondary school without qualifications would enable these young people to get a second chance.

Applications opened last week and would remain open up to the end of October. It was therefore unfair for the MUT to condemn the project before it was born. This was a difficult project, but it would not be abandoned.