Education Commissioner Charles Caruana Carabez will be investigating the extent of the teachers shortage problem amid reports that the government is planning to recruit foreigners.

The shortage was a situation which could no longer be ignored, Mr Caruana Garabez told a press conference, saying he will be gathering information on the number of educators missing, the number of students training to become teachers and related issues. He will then compile the data and make recommendations accordingly.

Times of Malta reported on Tuesday that the Education Ministry had issued a call to retired teachers interested in returning to the classroom.

Asked why he had decided to launch such an investigation now, given that the shortage of teachers had been a concern for the past couple of years, Mr Caruana Carabez told Times of Malta the problem was left to grow and now the situation was close to a crisis.

I don’t want to be dramatic or cause alarm but we face a crisis if we do not act

“I don’t want to be dramatic or cause alarm but we face a crisis if we do not act. That is why I want to understand better what the situation is in order to proceed with recommendations and comments,” Mr Caruana Carabez said.

“I will take the issue to Parliament if needs be. But they will not ignore me because they too are preoccupied and they will take action,” the Commissioner insisted.

Regarding the suggestion that foreign teachers could be brought in to fill in gaps, Mr Caruana Carabez said that while he wished there was no need for such measures, it was better than not having teachers - as long as the people who were brought in had the necessary qualifications.

“The priority at this stage is to make sure students receive their lessons. Learning is like building a wall and every single day a student or a teacher does not attend school, there is one less brick in the wall.

“With no teachers, walls crumble at the first opportunity. We cannot go on like this,” he went on.

But why the shortage?

The Commissioner said that he believed the issue stemmed from poor conditions for teachers including low pay.

“A teacher’s work is not only about the teaching load one has. A teacher does more. Sometimes, to prepare a lesson, you have to spend weeks on it, but then you have a student asking a question and you change everything and they learn more. I don’t like people measuring the immeasurable.

“This race to cover a syllabus makes no sense,” he said, insisting these added pressures could be the reason many did not take up teaching in the first place.