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Beyond The Spin: Everything You Need To Know About Malta’s Impending Teachers’ Strike

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As it stands, there will be no Monday blues for children next week, with teachers set to go on a rare nationwide strike in protest at proposed legislation.

The legislation has proven extremely contentious, with the Malta Teachers’ Union (MUT) warning it will revoke teachers’ permanent warrants and the Education Ministry accusing the union of misinterpreting the law.

In a fresh twist, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat today said he is ready to withdraw the proposals and urged the MUT to call off the strike, but the union dug its heels in and confirmed the strike is still on.

What are these bills proposing?

Education Minister Evarist Bartolo recently tabled three Bills in Parliament to update Malta’s education laws. These Bills have been in the pipeline for quite a long time, with a public consultation process launched back in June 2016.

In many aspects, the proposed law provides more rights and safeguards to teachers and educators. Harsher fines have been proposed for violence and aggressive behaviour on teachers, school officials and volunteers on school grounds, while school officials will be protected from any legal repercussions for using minimum physical force to restrain violent students.

If a teacher advises a parent that their child needs help, such as an LSA or psychological sessions, the parent will no longer be able to veto this request. Instead, the case will be referred to a new board composed of professionals, which will give a binding decision in favour of the teacher or the parent’s request.

Interestingly, the law will also regulate the concept of homeschooling, something Bartolo has been talking about for years. A new regulator will be set up on the model of the National Commission for Further and Higher Education (NCFHE) to provide licenses to home-schoolers who ensure they can provide high standards of education.

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Joseph Muscat withdrew the bills today

So what is the fuss all about?

The controversy all boils down to changes in the conditions under which a teaching warrant can be revoked.

As it stands, there are two ways a teacher can lose his/her warrant. If a teacher is convicted of any crime that carries with it a maximum of one year’s imprisonment or more, their warrant is automatically revoked, even if the courts are lenient in their sentencing. Also, if the Council of the Teaching Profession decides that a teacher’s warrant should be revoked for any other reason, it can pass on its recommendations to the Education Minister, who will then get to decide whether to follow the Council’s advice or not.

It bears noting that teachers very rarely lose their warrants, with an Education Ministry spokesperson informing Lovin Malta that less than a handful have lost them in the past five years. Although Evarist Bartolo has never gone against the Council’s advice, a spokesperson said some of his predecessors had exercised this power in the past.

Although state school teachers are bound by a recent collective agreement to undergo continuous professional training, the Council has no right to revoke the warrant of a teacher who ignores this obligation. Instead, it can suspend that teacher’s warrant until s/he completes the necessary training.

Through the new law, the Council will be able to permanently revoke teachers’ warrants to educators who repeatedly ignore its requests to follow professional training courses, even after a suspension.

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Hang on, what is this Teachers’ Council?

The Council’s enhanced powers will come hand in hand with it being more widely representative of the education sector. It will be presided by a member of the judiciary appointed by the Education Minister and include three teachers appointed by the Minister, two educators appointed by the MUT, two primary school teachers (one from a state school and from a private school) and two secondary teachers (one from a state school and one from a private school) elected from among all registered teachers, a kindergarten assistant and an LSA elected by their peers, an academic from the University’s Faculty of Education, an academic from MCAST, a member of the Institute for Education, and a parent nominated by the parents’ association.

Why are these changes being introduced?

The official explanation is that these changes to the Education Act will ensure a continuously high standard of education by obliging teachers to keep themselves constantly up-to-date with progress in the subjects they are teaching. Some subjects, like PHSE/PSD and computer science, develop rapidly, meaning it is crucial for teachers to keep themselves constantly abreast of advances in their field.

“Rest assured that we don’t want to revoke a single warrant and that we want to encourage more youths to enter this vocation and profession,” Bartolo said.

So why is the MUT up in arms?

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MUT president Marco Bonnici

MUT president Marco Bonnici told Lovin Malta that the union has no problem with teachers receiving obligatory training, which is why it had agreed to this in its collective agreement in the first place, but that it disagrees with enforcing this by law.

He warned that the proposed law gives too much power to the Teaching Council over teachers’ warrants.

“I don’t want to take a short-term approach and say I agree with the law because I agree with the way the board is currently represented,” he said. “Who’s to say that circumstances won’t change in the future, that the board’s composition won’t change, and that it won’t impose training according to some ministerial direction?”

Bonnici noted, correctly, that the bill’s definition of training is extremely vague. All it says is that the the programmes of continuous professional development “may be established by the Council from time to time” and that the Council “may submit the applicant to a proficiency test” to establish whether s/he has passed the training.

“Who will stipulate what the training will be and who will pay for the training? Will it be the teachers themselves?” Bonnici questioned.

The MUT’s claim that teachers’ warrants will be replaced by temporary warrants that are renewed every year stems from a misinterpretation of the Bill.

The Bill does indeed grant the Council the power to issue temporary teaching licenses, which may be renewed annually, to unqualified teachers. However, this does not mean that all teaching warrants will be replaced by temporary licences, but appears to be a move intended to address Malta’s teacher shortage.

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What comes next?

Joseph Muscat extended an olive branch to the MUT this morning, announcing the government will withdraw the bill and go back to the drawing board and urging the union to call off its planned strike.

However, the MUT confirmed the strike was still on, as a sign of protest at the lack of respect shown by the government towards it throughout this saga, including how the Prime Minister’s announcement came while the MUT was in a meeting with the Education Ministry.

“The MUT is not protesting just the current abominable proposed law but the way the whole saga developed, with three bills to replace the Education Act which no one had seen prior to being presented in Parliament,” the union said. “This industrial action is the culmination of many disappointments, including the negation and then minimisation of what the MUT has been saying since discovering the bills tabled in Parliament.”

“Respect is shown through actions and not through empty rhetoric – these events have shown the lack of respect towards educators and Monday’s action is being taken to safeguard the profession and the quality of education of all students.”

It is as yet unclear whether teachers will follow their union’s directive now that the Bill has been withdrawn and a rebellious post by teacher and ONE News journalist Edward Montebello has gone quite viral on social media.

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“I will not strike on Monday because Marco Bonnici feels disappointed that certain arguments in a meeting were out on the media,” he said. “We were supposed to strike because we have concerns on the warrant issue written in the bill. The fact that this bill will go back to the drawing board and clear things up in an attempt to address our concerns raises a simple question. For which reason are we striking on Monday? For not appearing weak? To let bitterness and vengeance win over good will?”

“This is not a political issue, this is an issue of trying to move on and address the teachers’ concerns. If today’s trade unionism works this way, then our foundations for dialogue and policy making are in danger.”

What do you make of this whole saga?

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Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]

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