(Adds Education Ministry's statement)

All teaching grades at San Gorg Preca Boys Secondary School Ħamrun have been ordered by the Malta Union of Teachers to report to work one hour late on Friday because of continuous disruptions, threats and serious misbehaviour from individuals or groups of students.

Declaring a trade dispute with the Education Ministry, the union said it would be expanding the directive if further incidents of violence and threats on teachers were reported.

The union said in a statement it had been receiving reports about the unbearable situation faced by members at the school for the past months.

It alerted the ministry and the directorates several times and although discussions were held and action was taken by the directorates to support the school, the situation hardly improved.

“This situation is also affecting students who are victims of such misbehaviour with incidents of bullying and disruptions to their teaching and learning process,” the union said.

MUT president Kevin Bonello told a news conference that the MUT could not accept a situation where teaching grades could not conduct their work in a safe working environment.

The MUT, he said, had drawn up a list of short and long term solutions to address the situation.

In a statement, the Education Ministry said that a lot had been done on the matter and a number of initiatives were taken on the bases of a report on the situation at the school, both on an educational and on a social level.

However, there was no easy solution and the well-being of children was the priority.

Keeping children away from an educational structure was not a solution to overcome these challenges, it said.