.png)
Pupils endangered by teachers’ union directive not to open school gates earlier
Education ministry took six months to answer inquiries by Ombudsman.
19 August 2011, 12:00am
Matthew Vella
Matthew Vella
3 min read
Children attending public schools are being put at unnecessary risk and peril when transported by bus, because they are alighting the vehicles in busy roads and left to wait outside before school gates open at 8:30am.
In a report, Ombudsman Joseph Said Pullicino said children attending private or church schools alighted from buses within the school precincts and were collected under the supervision of school staff. But the education ministry was not making the same effort for government schools, it emerges from his investigation.
Early in November 2010 a group of parents residing in Manikata whose children attended Mġarr primary submitted a complaint to the Ombudsman against the Directorate for Educational Services, due to a directive from teachers’ union MUT that resulted in the school’s main gate being left closed right up until 8:30am, since no supervision would be available.
This resulted in a situation where childern were arriving at their school at around 7:55am were left unsupervised in the street outside the school gate.
It took the Ministry of Education over six months to respond to the Ombudsman’s correspondence on the investigation.
On its part, the education ministry informed the Ombudsman in June 2011 that school staff are not obliged to report for work before school opening time, and that pick-up times were within the conditions stipulated in the agreement between the Directorate for Educational Services and transport providers.
The ministry was of the view that supervision can only be done by persons who are employed for this purpose, such as retired persons who would be willing to work for a few hours per week.
The Ombudsman said in his report that he was particularly struck by the negative approach of the authorities involved. “While recognising the serious issues involved, they all shirked responsibility for looking after the interests and safety of children and seemed more intent on shifting responsibility onto others.”
The Ombudsman stated that he could not disagree more with the stand by the education authorities that they are not to be held responsible for the safety or security of children before they are admitted to the school grounds.
According to the Ombudsman there is no doubt that once these authorities provide school transport and take over the care and custody of children from the hands of parents onto minibuses detailed by them to transport schoolchildren to school, it is their duty to ensure that these children arrive at school, and within the school, safe and sound and without any risk to their safety. “There is no way in which the education authorities can divest themselves of this responsibility short of suspending the school transport system. “
The Ombudsman also remarked that the decision to refuse to open the school gate before the start of school hours and to close them immediately after closing time, is unreasonable and contrary to the rules of good administration.
“Children in the care and custody of the education authorities during school hours should remain so until handed over to their parents or guardians within a reasonable time. The school authorities have certainly no right to keep children out on the road and, even less, show them out of school onto the road, unattended and unguarded.”
He also criticised the MUT for shirking its responsibilities, and called upon it to seek solutions that provide a safe haven for children.
He said the ministry had made serious attempts to find solutions to this serious problem but progress appeared to be slow and there were indications that the outcome would not be positive since unfortunately financial considerations remain the overriding obstacle.
“Indeed it appeared that the extra costs involved to provide the necessary additional supervision before and after school hours would relate to the refusal by teachers to provide supervision outside school hours and to claims for compensation that would be made by the MUT for added duties beyond those established in the current Collective Agreement.”
Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...
•
All this blablabla, and you don't even realise that the problem is not being caused by teachers but by the transport system. Why should the teacher sign in for work earlier and stay afterschool, and BE THE ONE RESPONSIBLE for the 600 students in the school, while it is the private transport company who earns the money?
Please note that the teacher IS NOT the enemy!
Lancet, bl-istess argument tieghek, ic-cheque tac-children's allowance jibda jikkalkulah skont kemm il-genituri jaghmlu xoghlhom sew ukoll hux? Le le, fair is fair mela!
•
I`m curious about something. 3 year olds are or are not allowed school transport? In Zejtun and other schools the kindergarden children are allowed to use school transport. But in St. Nicholas College of Imgarr they are not allowed to. The drivers of the mini buses who take children to that school are being kind hearted they say when they get small children to that school.So ok the transport has the right to be one hour before the school starts but does the transport have a right to leave children at the school when it finishes cause i heard that manikata children were left more than once there for more than an hour all alone. Also i heard schools who have parents or relatives go collect the children after school are asked to show some identification and can never take other children with them. This does not seem to be happening in Imgarr, for i know that once a woman went to collect her children and was asked by the teachers to take other children with her. Is that a safe thing to do? with all the maniacs around, i wonder. So now i`m also wondering how serious the St. Nicholas College institution really is.
•
Briffy - Grow up. Stop insulting Maltese educators. Nobody works for free. You should be grateful for the work they are doing. Enough said.
•
The fact that state school children are not allowed to enter the school grounds before 8.30 when they are brought there by the schoolbus before 8.00 is really a downright shame and shows irresponsible behaviour on the schools staff. School children are transported that early simply to suit the need of drivers of the schoolbuses; the drivers call for the children at such an early hour because drivers have then to pick up tourists in hotels or from the airport. Minibuses and coach owners are not prepared to invest in additional coaches or minibuses and employ more staff, which would enable schoolchildren to be picked up say half-an-hour later. This would ensure that schoolchildren arrive at school at about the same time as the school gates open. It seems that teachers are not prepared to arrive half-an-hour earlier, nor are they prepared to stay on until such time as the schoolbuses arrive to pick up schoolchildren and see them back home. It is in a way too much to expect schoolbus owners to invest in additional vehicles and employ more drivers. They are out there to make money. But is it too much to expect that a couple of teachers in every school arrive at schools at 8 a.m. and stay on for an extra half hour after school hours to ensure that all schoolchildren have been picked up by the school buses? This would ensure that schoolchildren are supervised during the time lag between arrival and start of lessons, and end of lessons and departure. The supervisory staff could take it in turns. Given the average number of teachers in a school - say around 60 - it would mean that teachers would do this job just ONE week every scholastic year. Is it too much to expect that teachers do this 'extra' work without asking for for additional remuneration? If that is the case then I'm afraid the term 'educators' for teachers is indeed a misnomer.
•
Lancet + Vitor - You work what you are paid for. That is professionalism. Ask any professional to do something extra, and you have to pay for that. If the children are brought to school early due to a system where transport for some schools are done by the same drivers on the same day, we will still have this situation occuring everyday. What can be done is to organize activities for these children, maybe fitness, maybe some type of artistic/creative lesson, yet the question is from where are we going to pay for these lessons? People like you should pressure the govt. to invest more in the teachers, improve their conditions and then discuss new working conditions. Remember everyone has a family to feed, and teachers go to work for that, not because it's a hobby. It's really ridiculous to blame the teachers or their union for something which is not caused by them. It's caused by other factors, and I'll ask anyone of you,'Who would want to give his professional service for free everyday?'
•
Dear Lancet have you ever spent just 45 minutes in a class trying to deliver a lesson. If you have I am surprised at your atitude. With regard to payment on performance, this is ludicrous. If that was the case only teachers with high achievers would get a fat paycheck. Those of us who take care of the poor achievers would bearly make a living. But teachers do not teach, instruct nor coach, you do that with a circuss beast. We educate which stems from the Latin educere meaning to develop. So our mission is developmening the child in his/her in a hollistally. This implies that everytime a teacher is in contact with a student he/ she is doing her job. Many a teacher would attest to the fact that an informal chat with a student in the yard is occasionally worth more than a formal lesson.
So why should people take the moral high ground when teachers demand to be paid. Supervision is part of the job description of a teacher and therefore it should be remunerated. Its not that teachers are asking €500 a week. Its really a pittance that the government is begrudging them. The same goverment which just a few days ago gave reached a new agreement with the church schools to incresase its 42 million contribution that go for remuneration of staff and employment of specialised teachers. This to a church pleaing to be pauperized but still has €180,000 to fight divorce.
On the otherhand, money for our children is very hard to come by. Even at school they have to be early very early so that those going to other non government schools can have that extra snooze and arrive fres. But what can you do? Ours are children of a lesser God.
•
I agree with LANCET, @ Mr R Baldacchino, I don't agree when you say parents dump their children an hour before! I go out for work about 6:15am and see students already out especially in cold weather waiting or even getting their school transport at that time! I remember my days too have to get my school transport at 7am and DUMPED at 7:30 at school! I think that the agreement between the authorities and transport must be improved. Even more students go to school for educational purpose, seeing these behavior from professional persons, I wonder from where such bullying comes from, as if a teacher is paid to teach his/her subject and FULLSTOP. I'm sorry but Professionalism is very rare now days
•
I really think tat teachers should be have a performance based pay based on results their students would get on exams. True nobody works for free. Peraps Ruben some inspiration. At my time the Late John Testa, a eadmasrter of Liceo Vassalli used to open and close the gate himself... but teachers nowadays do not bother. never mind tat they barely do 40 hrs a week....
•
Chikku - Teachers are not paid to do supervision for parents who dump their children an hour before school starts. If you want to change the conditions of work, no problem, teachers will work earlier, but you have to pay for that. Nobody works for free. End of story.
•
Once again the Mean Ugly Teachers proves that this union really is childrens' worst enemy.
