The education sector is again in the news for the wrong reasons. The latest story is that many educators feel betrayed by their union representatives who signed a new collective agreement that, apparently, did not meet the expectations of many union members.

There was an immediate reaction and the Malta Union of Teachers must now contend with a new educators’ union as some of its disgruntled members feel they can no longer trust their representatives.

Following the resignation of three council members, MUT president Marco Bonnici said the government asked the union not to divulge the actual figures of the proposed increases but to only speak in terms of percentage increases to avoid having a negative impact on talks with other public sector unions.

Following the signing of the teachers’ agreement last December, it appears the government pulled a fast one on the MUT, which claims the figures published by the media “were leaked by the government”.

Unfortunately, it would not have been the first time the government PR machine feeds information selectively to the media to curry favour with a section of the public or pile pressure on the other side. If this leakage was indeed the work of some faceless government official, it has surely misfired because many ‘beneficiaries’ of the collective agreement feel they have been shortchanged by both their union and their employer.

Others may argue the leakage was meant to divide the educators and turn some of them against their union. If this was the case, the objective may have been achieved as the setting up of the new Union of Professional Educators shows. Whether this is good or bad, only time will tell. What is certain is that divide and rule strategies devised by employers rarely benefit workers in the long term.

Faced by the anger of some of his members, the MUT president adopted a somewhat defensive stance. He promised to never, in future, agree to speak about percentage increases because they could be interpreted in different ways by different people. He did not say, however, why his council felt it should accept the government’s request?

MUT members were also unhappy about the fact that their union signed the agreement with no formal endorsement by teachers, even if the union held a consultation process.

Mr Bonnici argued that putting the agreement to the vote among all teachers would have been a logistical problem due to the large number of members. Quite an astonishing argument indeed. Surely, in this advanced technological age when obtaining instant online feedback is very feasible, the union could have found ways to test the mood of its membership through an electronic voting system.

The education sector needs a period of serenity where educators feel appreciated rather than exploited by their employers or betrayed by their union.

Fragmentation of union representation of the teaching profession is likely to be detrimental to all – teachers, students, and even employers.

Teachers’ unions need strong leaders that enjoy the trust of the vast majority of educators who understandably insist on seeing their work conditions improve.

Rather than focusing on industrial troubleshooting, the public debate on education should focus on how the system can be reformed to help students achieve more in their schooling years is long overdue.

This is a Times of Malta print editorial