Education Ministry files judicial letter on UPE directives

The Ministry for Education has submitted a judicial letter to the Law Courts in connection to directives issued by the UPE. 

In a statement released this evening, the ministry announced that they submitted an official letter to the First Hall of the Civil Court, saying that the directives issued by the UPE go against the agreement reached between the ministry and MUT. 

"This agreement safeguards the education offered to children and students in our schools," the ministry stated. "The Ministry continues to call for in-school learning and for this not to be hampered by actions that do no good in these circumstances."

It is unknown which directives the letter refers to. 

In the run-up to the start of the second scholastic semester, the Malta Union of Teachers announced a two-day strike after educators weren't allowed to provide online learning for the first few days of the term, despite a post-holiday spike in COVID-19 cases.

The strike was resolved after days of negotiations between government, MUT, and other education entities. On Friday 8 January, a join statement published by all involved stakeholders had announced that schools will be reopening with strengthened COVID mitigation measures.

UPE was highly sceptical of this agreement. The union had requested to see the formal document with all signatures included, but was responded to on 20 January by Frank Fabri, Permanent Secretary within the Ministry of Education, with a copy of the statement circulated on 8 January.

"The UPE has its reservations on a variety of points, and had requested a detailed document purely to verify whether its reservations were grounded in any way," the union said.