Parents of students attending the St Albert The Great College in Valletta have asked Education Minister Clifton Grima to intervene immediately.

The current situation at the college has been labelled as a “crisis” after nearly a quarter of the staff at the college resigned following the dismissal of former headmaster Mario Mallia. 

“We, parents and guardians of children who attend St. Albert the Great College are deeply concerned about the crisis that the school is facing and with the negative repercussions that are affecting our children,” the parents and guardians said in a letter to the Minister.

“We are preoccupied with our children’s health, safety and well-being, and know that just after a few days since the start of this scholastic year, the situation has rapidly deteriorated from bad to worse, despite the assurances that we have received from the college’s administration,” they said.

The parents also addressed the fact that nearly a quarter of staff members have resigned, all being very necessary positions for the college to keep up with its educational commitments. 

“We are also worried due to the fact that our children have already missed a considerably large number of hours from their learning and the indications show that these missed lessons shall increase in the coming weeks, with irreversible repercussions, especially on those students soon to be sitting for their SEC exams,” they said.

They even expressed that they are distraught because students who need the most support are the most disadvantaged in this situation.

“We do not have a clear and transparent picture of the most important events happening in the
college because of a lack of communication from the management of the school, and are not being guaranteed that the situation will be solved soon enough for our children’s own
good due to the lack of staff and serious planning by the college leadership,”

Parents are also fearful that in a few weeks, the situation at the college would totally collapse to the detriment of their children.

“Therefore, we are requesting that the Minister for Education and all who hold the competent authority over our children’s education, implement all that is necessary to step in to ensure that the contingency plan announced by His Excellency Archbishop of Malta can come to effect together with a healing process for this educational community.”

A contingency plan had been announced days before the commencement of the new scholastic year, in case the college does not manage to deal with the current situation.

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