Teachers at loggerheads over ‘deteriorating situation'

The Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) is threatening to direct its members to leave a classroom as teachers are finding it “impossible” to control a class of 26 students at the Zabbar primary school.

According to MUT president Kevin Bonello, ever since a teacher was disciplined, “the situation has deteriorated to one which is untenable”, with Year 2 students reportedly taking advantage of the situation and the teachers unable to control them.

The teacher was disciplined after she made a six-year-old child kneel down in a yard while his classmates were asked to laugh at him. The incident had been raised by PN MEP candidate Helga Ellul. She had then asked the Education Minister to investigate the incident.

The matter was investigated and the teacher disciplined. The school also brought in a counsellor, a psychologist, a learning support assistant and an anti-bullying team in order to assist the child and his family.

The MUT is now threatening to “direct all its members to go out of any classroom where the child in question is present”.

Contacted by MaltaToday, Bonello said the MUT would be resorting to this measure as a last resort.

“Teachers are not being allowed to work, are facing threats of being reported to the media if they dare discipline the students when they misbehave. They shouldn’t be burdened with such responsibilities.”

The MUT has given the Education Department until today to find a solution. According to Bonello, the viable solution would be allowing the teachers and the school to work.

“These teachers practically have a revolver pointed to their heads, since they are threatened with media exposure. The teachers now think twice before disciplining the students and the school doesn’t know what else it can do,” Bonello said, adding that the students were becoming impossible to control.

Seven of the students, he added, also have behavioural problems.

A spokesperson for the Ministry for Education said the ministry was “keeping all avenues of communication open in a bid to find a solution”.

“In the meantime, the school’s administration is providing all professional aid and support to the child in question,” the spokesperson said.

The MUT claims that the six-year-old child, “appears to have profited from the situation and his behaviour is now hardly within control, which comes as no surprise considering that the parents are apparently, and separately, threatening the teacher, the school and the college with a media press conference”.

Bonello said the school had exhausted all options to compensate for the teacher’s wrongdoing.

“Despite the teacher’s efforts to make up for her mistake, the situation is now untenable. She was disciplined, received a warning and she did not contest it.”

Bonello also criticised Ellul for having mounted a media campaign on the incident, before first reporting the matter to the minister.
“It was very irresponsible of that person, even though her intentions might have been good. This teacher was practically placed before a kangaroo court,” he said, adding that the issue had been tackled “the other way round”.

He added that the matter also backfired for the child, “who has now been placed under the spotlight”.

Attempts to contact Ellul for a comment proved to be futile by the time of going to print for MaltaToday's midweek edition