32 primary school classes across Malta remain without a class teacher amid a dispute between the Education Ministry and unions over gaps in educators’ expertise.

A ministry spokesperson told Lovin Malta that at the start of the scholastic year, all 1,016 primary school classes had a teacher assigned, 109 of which were opened to extend classes due to COVID-19 measures.

However, Malta’s teaching unions, MUT and UPE, issued directives over concerns that many primary schools teachers don’t have the necessary requirements to teach young students – and instead have their expertise based on subjects like drama, PE, and art. 

This, they’ve said, is unacceptable, particularly given the rapid changes to the education curriculum and that it fails to ensure that Maltese youths are receiving proper education, as outlined in the constitution. 

The unions had warned the ministry over the issue before the start of summer and months before the scholastic year began. Still, no action was taken and the same teachers were assigned to their classrooms.

“Now, 32 classes are unmanned following directives issued by the unions to a number of teachers not to attend classes to which they were asked to report before the scholastic year started when teachers had already been duly identified and deployed,” a spokesperson said.

“The Ministry for Education discussed the situation with the unions to no avail. In the meantime, there is an ongoing exercise with an open call to recruit more educators, including retired teachers.”

The dispute comes amid major concerns over the education system with the country having one of the highest early school leavers in the entire EU even though education is free up until university. 

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