Children treated in hospital for cancer have been left without a teacher for more than a year and a half and their calls for online learning have also been ignored.

A teacher who used to give lessons at Mater Dei’s Rainbow Ward was removed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and sent to a primary school due to the shortage of educators, according to the vice-president of the Puttinu Cares Foundation.

Angele Cuschieri, who is also the ward’s charge nurse, said the young cancer patients were being treated differently to their peers.

“Other children went back to their classrooms while, in the Rainbow Ward, we are left without a teacher and online lessons have been suspended,” she said.

Some children in the cancer care ward, who cannot attend school because of long-term illness, had temporarily been able to join their classmates for online lessons when remote learning was introduced.

Rebecca Zammit Lupi, who died of cancer earlier this year at the age of 15, had described feeling “that little bit more normal” when she joined her virtual classroom from her hospital bed at the ward.

She was among the young cancer patients who joined their support group to  appeal for online schooling to continue for those receiving treatment even when schools returned. 

Her appeal was supported by President George Vella.

An ‘adolescents room’ at the Rainbow Ward, where children are missing out on education. Photo: DOI

Puttinu Cares Foundation and a number of parents then wrote to then education minister Owen Bonnici to keep remote learning going, suggesting the setting up of laptops and cameras on the empty school desks to live stream lessons directly from the classrooms into the wards, benefitting also patients who have to travel overseas for treatment.

But the Education Ministry has not yet answered questions on whether it will reintroduce online learning or provide a teacher in the paediatric and adolescent oncology ward.

Cuschieri acknowledged there were logistical issues for teachers at the ward, who cannot work normal school hours due to the young patients undergoing chemotherapy or other treatment.

She said online schooling was not the foundation’s preferred option and added that nurses should not be handed the responsibility of connecting patients to online classrooms. 

However, she said she witnessed first-hand the impact that remote learning had had on the children, who needed routine, had something to look forward to and no longer felt isolated while undergoing treatment.

It had lifted their morale and actually helped their recovery, she maintained.

Before losing her battle to cancer last January, Rebecca, also known as Becs, had said she did not only miss seeing her friends but also studying and learning due to her long absence from school.

According to the child cancer patient support group, one of the first and major concerns parents face when their children are hospitalised for long periods is their stalled education.