Updated | Maths and Maltese exams hanging in the balance: MUT meeting with minister inconclusive

State secondary school students will not be able to sit for their annual Mathematics and Maltese exams unless talks over teachers’ working conditions between the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) and the Education Ministry produce an agreement.

MUT President Marco Bonnici said that a meeting held on Friday afternoon with the Education Minister was "inconclusive" and both sides will meet again on Monday in a bid to break the deadlock.

Earlier on Friday, Bonnici told MaltaToday that despite warning the ministry about a lack of teachers available to teach the subjects, the warnings had fallen on deaf ears.

According to Bonnici, teachers are currently obliged to teach 24 lessons per week, but staff shortages have resulted in some going over and above their call of duty at 25 lessons per week.

Some 27% of Maths teachers, Bonnici said, were teaching 25 lessons per week.

Bonnici said that if the ministry and the union fail to reach an agreement, the union would enforce a directive issued last November, calling on teachers not to set or correct any exam papers in the two subjects.

He insisted that the union had been piling pressure on the ministry since November.

“We have been warning the ministry about the lack of resources since November, when we issued the first directive, but seven months on we have yet to see any changes,” Bonnici said.

Bonnici said that the MUT had been pressuring the ministry since November. 

“We have been warning the ministry over the lack of resources since November, when we issued the industrial action, but seven months on we have yet to see any changes,” Bonnici said.

The industrial action issued in November for Maths and Maltese secondary school teachers and heads of departments, asked them to refrain from providing and correcting exam papers.