'Disgrace' - Parents slam court for rejecting bid to suspend LSE directives
Court says wrong legal procedure used to stop MUT order affecting disabled students during exams
A request to suspend directives that instruct Learning Support Educators (LSEs) of children with disabilities not to aid children during exams has been rejected by a court.
The Malta Union of Teachers’ directives, issued on June 3, are in force between June 9 and 26.
The Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD), together with parents of a child with a disability – Rebecca Bonello and Neil Crossey – filed a request for a warrant of prohibitory injunction to be issued to stop the MUT’s directives.
The request was filed in the First Hall of the Civil Court, presided over by Mr Justice Henri Mizzi.
On Friday, the judge turned down the request. The court said the applicants were asking to reverse a directive that had already been issued.
Since the action had already taken place, the type of request they made was not appropriate.
The court said they should have made a different kind of request, one that asks the other party to take action, rather than stop something from happening.
“If the courts cannot decide, then who can. It is a disgrace,” parents Bonello and Crossey said.
The request was never appointed for hearing so neither party had the chance to make their submissions.
The directives request all school management in middle and secondary schools to refrain from carrying out any changes to the timetabling of exams.
“The examination period in middle and secondary schools shall continue to be dedicated exclusively to exams. HODs, Teachers and LSEs are directed to adhere to the original examination schedule," they say.
This essentially means that LSEs who are usually assigned to children with disabilities who choose not to take exams are removed from their posts, resulting in the child not being able to attend school in most cases.
The application was signed by lawyers Rachel Tua and Bernard Busuttil.
The Malta Federation of Organisations of Persons with Disability has also said that it is “deeply concerned and disappointed” with MUT's directives.