College trustee denies union claims of ‘favouritism’ in church schools ruckus

One of the trustees of the La Salle schools in Malta has denied using his influence to favour his daughter’s promotion to a secondary school position.

Former Malta Enterprise chairman Lawrence Zammit told MaltaToday that teachers’ union MUT’s allegations that he used his position to secure a permanent teaching post for his daughter – a supply teacher – were “false”.

It was one of the complaints that the MUT took to Archbishop Charles Scicluna in denouncing a series of abusive recruitments taking place in church schools.

“It is false. I did not speak to anyone about it, and I did not exert any pressure on any such recruitment of teachers,” Zammit told MaltaToday.

Zammit’s daughter was formerly a supply teacher of P.E. for Stella Maris College’s primary school in the 2014-15 year, before being formally employed as secondary school teacher for P.E. – as well as an assistant to the science teacher – for the early forms for the 2015-16 scholastic year.

The union however complained that the school had just terminated a fully-qualified teacher of P.E. right before the start of the scholastic year, while still in his one-year probation “without any reason” and in spite of “positive feedback related to his performance.”

The union said it was the college’s legal right to terminate the teacher’s position while on probation. But it questioned the fact that the teacher – a B.Ed graduate in physical education also pursuing his Masters – was replaced by a graduate with a degree in dance studies, suggesting she was not the most suitably qualified to take the full-time position.

“I am unaware of this teacher’s [predicament] but I don’t think we can make any link between one and the other,” Zammit said of the union’s claims, again denying having had any say in Stella Maris’s recruitment decision. “On this, the union’s claims are way off-target.”

The college’s call for recruitment was issued in June 2015 while the P.E. teacher was still in employment. “The termination was [then] so late that other calls were all closed by the time this teacher became unemployed,” the union complained in a statement it posted on its website.

Earlier in the week, the MUT said it held a positive meeting with the Archbishop after having flagged a series of abusive recruitment policies by Church schools, presenting Scicluna with their suggestions.

The union complained of “shambolic practices that are not only a shame on those schools and their leaders but also a far cry from the ‘Catholic practice’ being suddenly expected from Church school teachers.” 

Their complaints in turn brought on accusations from the Church Schools Association, which groups directors and heads of church schools, of “bullying” towards the Secretariat for Catholic Education.

The MUT however claims that teachers have been blatantly singled out during interviews because of their gender, others told they only wanted to employ male teachers and others who had their job terminated for no apparent reason “except perhaps because the post was being reserved for someone else”.