Unions’ industrial dispute harming students, Children’s Commissioner says

Some primary school students are still without a class teacher as a result of an ongoing dispute on how to plug a teachers’ shortage, the children’s commissioner said.

The Office of the Children’s Commissioner said it is disappointed that in the dispute, the best interests of children have not been considered.

“A number of primary school children have been without a class teacher since the beginning of this scholastic year and their right to an education trodden upon by adults who

have agreed to talk only after engaging in a legal battle that has damaged the very children

whose best interests they are meant to serve,” the Office said.

The commissioner said that the shortage was created by COVID-19 public health safety measures in schools that resulted in more classes being created to make good for social distancing rules.

“In the face of an emergency situation, one would have expected all parties to abandon the politics and tactics of confrontation and adopt a more collaborative approach in order to agree on temporary measures that would allow the education system to weather the COVID-19 storm for the benefit of all children,” the office said.

On the eve of schools reopening, the Education Ministry had informed a number of peripatetic teachers that they will be assigned to specific classrooms. The move caught these teachers by surprise since they had very little time to prepare material they normally were not expected to deliver.

Unions ordered industrial action and an attempt by the ministry to stop the action by court order was rejected.

The situation remains unresolved and some primary school students are still without a class teacher.

The Office of the Children’s Commissioner said it was dismayed by the court ruling, which “championed the right of the teachers’ unions to protest a decision by the ministry over the right of children to an education”.

“It beggars belief that the judge presiding over the case is quoted as having said that ‘there was no rights for the court to protect’, when the right of children to an education is guaranteed by Article 3 of Education Act, which has just come into force,” the commissioner said. “This clearly shows that Malta’s legal framework for children’s rights needs to be strengthened in order to give legal force to the convention and make children’s rights legally binding.”