Teachers’ union says co-ed requires ‘delicate transition, serious evaluation’

The Malta Union of Teachers has come out in favour of co-eduction but has expressed concern that not enough time was allowed to evaluate the pilot project before a definite decision was taken.

For the first time in state secondary schools, the government introduced the co-ed system at Pembroke as a pilot project. Education minister Evarist Bartolo initially said that after analysing the system, the Education Directorate would consider extending co-ed to other schools.

However, four months into the 2013/2014 scholastic year, schools have been informed that all Form 1s will be co-ed as from next September.

"We agree with co-education and we believe this is a step in the right direction. We agreed with a pilot project in order to build a model to follow and evaluate. Yet, even though this pilot project is not half way through, schools have been informed that all Form 1s will be co-ed," MUT president Kevin Bonello said.

Bonello said the MUT had expected a serious evaluation of the pilot project before taking a definite decision. Moreover, an internal committee at the Pembroke School set up to evaluate the pilot project has not met since the start of the scholastic year.

"The MUT was expecting that since this reform is of paramount importance and is going to change the physiognomy and the whole education culture, there should have been a serious evaluation of the pilot project," he said.

Bonello said not all schools were "geared" for the introduction of co-ed.

"Heads of schools need the necessary financial resources to prepare for such a delicate transition. Certain schools will see 120 girls going in a boys' school with a population of 800," he said.

Although schools will be divided between middle (form 1 and 2) and senior (form 3 to 5) schools, Bonello said this will not be possible in schools where the population is already too big. He pointed out that every school had its own realties and different solutions were required.

Asked whether the introduction of co-ed was linked to decreasing student populations, Bonello said heads of school simply received a circular from the education directorate without providing any explanation.

He cautioned that colleges like St Thomas Moore College and Marija Regina College, already crowded, do not have the physical space to introduce a middle school each.

Bonello said that for many years, a lot of teachers and educators in secondary schools were going through considerable uncertainty because of middle and senior schools.

Concern was also expressed on mixed-ability, after the Education Minister acknowledged that the biggest challenge facing teachers was mixed-ability teaching.

The minister was speaking during TVM's current affairs programme Reporter.

Bonello said that while it was true it had been introduced without any planning, yet nothing has been done to address it today.

Bonello said the MUT was in favour of the breakfast club, however no details were available on how the initiative is going to be implemented.

On the introduction of tablets in education, the union said it expected the tablets to help teachers in their work and it should be introduced at the start of a new scholastic year.

Tomorrow, MUT will be holding a first of a series of meetings with the Directorates in order to reach an agreement.

MUT lamented of reform fatigue, saying that less than a year since the election, there were already substantial reforms taking place while teachers were still getting to grips with the previous reforms.

Bonello said the union also felt it should create more awareness with the public about the good work that educators were doing.

"We should not forget that especially in a country like ours the main resource is human and this ultimately requires continuous proper education to succeed," he said.