Watch: Bernard Grech – ‘Spend Less On Budget Ads And More On Teacher Salaries’
Opposition Leader Bernard Grech has questioned how the government could fork out thousands of euro to promote the Budget while acting “miserly” with teachers.
“When government acts miserly with educators it means it is acting miserly our children and youth, the nation’s best resource. The government has no long-term vision, which is why it keeps clashing with teachers,” Grech told a political rally today.
“However, it manages to find hundreds of thousands of euro to promote the budget and convince you it’s a just budget. This week an educator told me he got tired of seeing budget ads pop up whenever he opens YouTube to show his children a video.”
“He said that if the government had given educators more money instead of spending it on that ad, we would truly be Malta Ġusta because we could work better with children.”
“Understand that Malta won’t progress with promotional ads but with serious politics that have a vision and a plan.”
Grech also challenged the common misconception that teachers don’t have a right to demand significantly better conditions because they benefit from extended summer holidays.
“Yes, they have three months of summer holidays on paper but in reality it’s two months because they must also work on concluding the previous scholastic year and preparing for the next one,” he said.
“Educators cannot take leave whenever they want and if they want to go on holiday, it must always be in the high season. They must also deal with new challenges that reflect challenges in society and their curriculum workload keeps increasing too.”
Grech spoke out ahead of tomorrow’s teacher’s strike that follows weeks of directives over a collective agreement for the industry that the Malta Union of Teachers has described as “insulting”.
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