NB To Malta’s Teachers: School Inspectors Will Soon Be Able To Investigate You Without Prior Notice
A revamp is coming to Malta’s education system which will allow the government’s school inspectors to investigate classrooms without prior notice.
A Bill which is currently being debated in Parliament states that officers of a new Division of Education will “have the power to enter at any time, without prior notice, in any school, childcare centre, class or place of instruction, and inspect and report on the teaching and learning process, educational leadership, learning and assessment programmes, student well-being, the physical environment, and the observance of the conditions, standards, policies and regulations established and made by virtue of this Act.”
Schools, childcare centres and eventual home educators will have to provide any information and access requested by these inspectors as part of their investigation.
If the Division of Education finds a school in breach of any regulations or issues it with recommendations, the school will have to prepare a plan of action, along with timelines. If the Division isn’t satisfied with its implementation, it will have the power to take “any reasonable action it deems fit”.
Graham Sansone, head of the Union of Professional Educators
The Union of Professional Educators, Malta’s minority teachers’ union, has warned this bill will see the government’s role in terms of monitoring educators evolve from a mainly advisory role to a more disciplinary one.
“It seems that the controlling and oppressive attitude of the Education Ministry towards educators is now reaching alarming proportions and found itself shamelessly expressed in the proposed Bill,” it said.
It also warned that the bill itself is too vague and doesn’t mention what action may be taken by inspectors.
“By the generally wide terms in which the legislation is drafted it seems that these inspectors will have unlimited powers of investigation and may recommend anything they deem fit which recommendation will carry official weight and will be certainly implemented,” the UPE said.
“What about the qualifications of these “inspectors” and their method of engagement? No mention is made of these matters. Even more worrying is the fact that the draft makes no provision for the contestation of the inspection process or the resulting reports.”
Do you think teachers require more inspections?
READ NEXT: Maltese Exorcist Calls For Halloween Ban At Church Schools: ‘It’ A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing’
