Educators spend an average of €220 yearly on resources

A survey entitled “The cost of teaching resources”, carried out by the Malta Union of Teachers Youth section reveals that educators have to pay out €220 out of their own salaries on a yearly basis, with some saying that they spend well over €1000 in order to carry out their jobs as required.

The online questionnaire was carried out in order to establish how much money educators spend every year, and it included 325 individuals from various schools. It included teachers, head teachers as well as Learning Support Assistants, working mostly in state schools.

Addressing journalists at a press conference on Thursday MUT Youth Section Chairperson Gilbert Zahra said: “Many participants said that their place of work took no or very little measures to account for expenses related to their work.”

The survey showed that the majority of costs go towards printing and photocopying, with educators responsible for Primary schools or Kindergarten spending more money than others.

The MUT is proposing a fund that will be in charge of covering such extra expenses, and ensuring that educators do not have to dish out a large part of their pay simply in order to do their jobs. 

The Senior Vice-President of the MUT Marco Bonnici, said that he hopes that the fund will be something like a smart card system. Educators should be given a yearly allowance to use on extra resources, whereby they would be asked to present a receipt to prove that the funds are being used for work purposes. Bonnici also suggested that this fund could be administered in the form of a card which allows money to be spent on certain subjects, such as the system being used at MCAST.

Zahra also spoke about the bad condition that some of the resources like laptops, provided by the Government have fallen into. “The provision of a Work Resources Fund would cover the provision and maintenance of hardware and software in schools”.

The Vice Chair person of MUT Dirk Muscat, spoke about his personal experience as a teacher. He said that the laptops provided had fallen into such disrepair that he had to buy his own equipment using his own funds. The provided laptops had a maintenance contract which is long overdue, but the MUT is expecting a roll-out of new laptops on March the 1st of this year.

Zahra also said that although the study shows that many educators hold their jobs and the good of their students at heart, by always choosing to pay extra money for their benefit, the situation is becoming unmanageable  and that it is “hindering the performance of educators’ duties”.