Skola Sajf: Parents concerned about lax supervision

The first day of the government-run Skola Sajf had a somewhat rocky start on Monday after parents expressed their concern over the lax supervision of children, especially before and after school hours.

A parent who collected her child from the Naxxar public school was shocked to discover that, not only did she find her daughter wandering around the school alone, but that she was even allowed to pick her daughter up without getting her ID card checked.

In comments to MaltaToday, a ministry spokesperson reassured that following Monday’s incident all necessary steps to rectify the situation were taken and all entrance and exit points were under supervision.

The concerned parent took to Facebook to vent her experience, where a heated discussion with other concerned parents ensued over the logistical issues which had been made evident on just the first day of the service being offered.

Contacted by Malta Today, the mother said that she had already had some concerns about the ratio of handlers to children when she dropped off her daughter at the school in the morning.

“I had to position myself between the front door and the yard until the children were taken to their respective groups to keep them from getting out,” she said.

The mother from yesterday’s event explained that despite the initial hiccup, her daughter had in fact thoroughly enjoyed the classes and that the tutors had been very well prepared and equipped to entertain the children. “The problem here is a logistical one,” she said, describing her experience.

The mother, who went to pick up her daughter at the designated time (12.30pm), was immediately struck by the disorder outside the school.

“There needs to be some sort of transport system or at least a traffic warden to ensure that there isn’t so much confusion at pick-up time,” she said, adding that the situation got worse as she actually entered the school.

Looking for an entrance, the woman found her daughter wandering around in a school foyer, and as she was about to take her daughter home, realised that she could have been anyone.

“There was nobody there to check my identification, and there were a number of other parents who were doing exactly the same thing, but I was concerned about the security issue, and angered as I had been led to believe there would be appropriate safety measures in place,” she said.

After contacting a young helper, who had her hands full and wasn’t in charge of the logistics, she was told that the co-ordinator would be in charge of such matters but that he had left due to personal issues.

She was then directed to a mentor who was checking off parents’ identification, only to be told that she shouldn’t have been allowed onto the school premises in the first place, but that he could only do so much since he was manning one entrance.

The parent has since been contacted by management of the school who admitted that such a situation was “unacceptable,” and that they were “looking into” the situation.

The CEO of the foundation for educational services (FES), Elizabeth Pisani also told this paper that she has since then spoken to the parent in person. 

“I went to the school myself, and we ensured that there were people situated at all three exits of the school to check identification,” Pisani said, adding that for some reason the system had failed on Monday.

“The staff numbers were exactly the same as yesterday,” she said, remarking that today’s dismissal had gone very smoothly.

Contacted by this newspaper, the ministry of education and its FES, said that the complaint had been noted and that immediate steps to rectify the situation have been taken.

“The foundation has already spoken with this individual and she has received our assurances that this shortcoming will be addressed at once,” the ministry said in its statement.

It added that overall, “despite this unfortunate exception,” the initial feedback of the first day of Skolasajf was positive.

“As usual, the public is encouraged to send in their feedback on our ‘Edukazzjoni’ Facebook page and on edu.gov.mt/feedback,” they said.

“They assured me that they held children’s welfare at heart, which is reassuring in a way, but I sincerely hope that the logistical management will improve greatly,” she said, adding that given the public outcry on social media, she expected the situation to improve greatly in the future.

“I was particularly angry because we had been told there would be a particularly rigorous system in place, but there wasn’t. I’d rather be warned that there is no system present,” she insisted.

In its comments on Monday’s incident, the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) pointed out that the lack of staff had caused various problems in state schools over the years.

The MUT explained that the incident in question was not isolated and that such issues also hindered schools outside the summer months.

“In some schools there is open access for all and they can do very little about it due to the logistics of the school building. The solution is to make a risk assessment of all state schools, take action on each building where there are security flaws and introduce personnel trained in security.”

The MUT said it has been demanding a redress of the situation for years but while some measures in some particular schools were introduced, “there is still a very long way to go,” a union spokesperson told Malta Today.

Last year, the MUT had even called for staff members not to report for work due to staff shortages, which had subsequently led to a delay of the opening of summer schools.

Concerns on the lack of security were compounded when a three-year-old boy was found roaming the busy streets of Fgura, after having slipped out of a government-run summer school unnoticed. The boy, who was meant to be at Skola Sajf lessons, had triggered a national outrage on the security issues which evidently plagued the system. Investigations concluded that doors to the school were left open for three main reasons: a broken bell; no letter box for the postman to deliver the letters; no personnel or caretakers available to stand by the door to monitor who’s going in and out.