Updated 8.34am on Wednesday - 

The Malta Union of Teachers has expressed concern after the education minister told parliament on Tuesday that 97 educators resigned over the past year.

Education Minister Clifton Grima was replying to a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP Graziella Galea. 

Galea asked for a breakdown of how many education professionals, by category, had resigned in both primary and secondary schools.

The minister said 55 educators resigned from primary schools and 42 from secondary schools. 

Broken down by category, primary schools lost three kindergarten educators, 27 learning support assistants and 25 teachers, ten of whom were peripatetic teachers. 

In secondary schools, there were resignations by two assistant heads, seven learning support assistants and 33 teachers. 

A 2020 study found that between 2008 and 2018, the number of teachers who resigned from their post spiked by 119%, going from 26 to 57 during the span of a decade. 

The same study also found that the number of students registering for courses in education at the University of Malta declined by 20%, going from 334 in 2017 to 268 in 2019. 

MUT concern

The MUT in a statement expressed its concern and said it had asked the Ministry of Education for further details.

"Whilst all resignations require analysis, there must be a distinction between resignations from one sector due to an employment offer in another educational sector and resignations due to career changes or other reasons," it said.

The union said it had asked the ministry to use exit interview information to provide a better understanding of the situation.

The union said that it was also concerned by reports that educators who had resigned and then asked to return to the state sector were having their requests refused.

"This does not augur well to the pledge to attract educators to return to the profession," it said.