Watch: ‘Bullying With The Minister’s Blessing’- Naxxar School’s ‘Screeching’ Speaker Makes It To Parliament
According to many Iklin residents and their lengthy petition, the village mayor, as well as the community police, a Naxxar Middle School has been exposing its neighbours to “increasingly loud and incessant” noise coming from its loudspeakers, so much so, that the matter had to be taken to Parliament.
On 15th January, MP Julie Zahra asked the Minister for Education Clifton Grima whether his office had acted on the petition of several Iklin residents regarding “the inconvenience being caused by a loudspeaker” used by Maria Reġina Middle School in Naxxar.
On 22nd January, the Minister replied to the Parliamentary Question, saying that “the school isn’t doing anything different from other schools on the island”.
Lovin Malta received a video from a neighbour living just a stone’s throw away from the school, who said that the sound “can be heard from a 1/2 km radius.”
“The school is just choosing to ignore all requests, and now for the cherry on the cake, the school can continue to bully its way with the minister’s blessing,” the resident told the newsroom.
“What is even worse is that there is a Senior Care Home in the same area,” he continued.
“They are supposedly trying to teach children respect, and then they can’t even bother respecting their neighbours,” the man added continued.
Lovin Malta reached out to the Iklin mayor Dorian Sciberras who strongly disagreed with the Minister’s reply, saying that the noise caused by Maria Reġina Middle School is “not just like any other school,” but is extremely cumbersome.
He insisted that the residents are not just trying to pick a fight, saying that the constant loud and screeching noise coming from the school is in fact a “nuisance”.
Sciberras explained that the local council tried communicating with the school, and at one point the community police had to intervene and tried talking to the education office and head of school.
Despite the efforts of the local council, Sciberras said that they “always found a closed door”, and that the school’s excuse is that the announcements are “necessary” for the wellbeing of the students.
Sciberras stated that “this level of noise pollution is not acceptable in 2024”.
“The message we are giving the students is that we don’t care about our neighbours and our urban environment,” he continued, implying that in its adamance to not change its ways, the school is setting a bad example to the children it educates.
“This environmental awareness should start, first and foremost, at school,” Sciberras added.
He went on to say that while some individuals may not understand what the fuss is all about, it is important to be mindful of people who work on a shift basis and rest during the day, “not to mention the fact that so many are now working from home,” he added.
The mayor claimed that the school didn’t even want to “sit around a table” with them and “at least try to find a compromise”.
The petition which pushed the issue to the parliamentary table stated that the “sheer screeching voice” that can be heard from the school prevents the nearby residents from “having a comprehendible conversation”, while “also disturbing persons who work from home and also children from studying, besides the residents at the Hilltop Garden Senior Care Home.”
The document went on to detail how despite the many complaints put forward by the residents, “the school management has preferred to ignore them, and to add insult to injury, the volume has increased over the past months.”
Both the Iklin mayor and spokesperson for signatories of the petition told Lovin Malta that they are more than certain that the school could use other methods, or perhaps simply lower the volume to “reach their desired effect without disturbing the neighbourhood.”
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