Education Minister Evarist Bartolo is “very confident” the start of the scholastic year in September will not be marred by staff shortages, as happened last year.

In 2017, the government was forced to resort to asking university students to take up teaching jobs to fill vacancies. The decision had sparked outrage, with students, parents and teachers complaining the matter had long been flagged without any remedial action being taken.

However, Mr Bartolo now says this would not happen again this year.

“We are planning so the same thing will not be repeated. We are very confident we are in a better position now,” he said, insisting this year there were enough teachers to fill all vacant posts.

So far, I am told we have no issues

Mr Bartolo added that, last year, the people tasked with planning classifications and assigning teachers were also going through a “learning curve”.

“So far, I am told we have no issues but it does happen that, by the end of summer, some people resign or take maternity leave and, therefore, that factor has to be borne in mind,” Mr Bartolo noted.

Though in the past many tended to shy away from certain positions, such as head of school or assistant head, this year all such roles had been filled and more people than required had applied, he added.

Mr Bartolo said this was partly due to the changes stemming from the new collective agreement finalised earlier this year that saw educators get higher salaries.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.