A crowd of MCAST educators rallied on Wednesday in support of a lecturer who was assaulted by a student last week.

The Malta Union of Teachers organised the protest to condemn the aggression and raise awareness about the increasingly difficult conditions educators face. 

Education Minister Clifton Grima as well as MCAST management officials also attended the protest at the MCAST Campus in Paola. 

While not physically present, the lecturer in a statement circulated by the MUT said that he was left “shaking” and with “blood dripping down (his) face” after the incident. 

The lecturer, identified only as Mr KC, said that he was never assaulted in such a manner in his 20-year career. 

He said it  happened in the context of the student having in the previous weeks refused to participate or do class work, further compounded by his classmates refusing to do group assignments with him. 

“Over the past four weeks, the class had to prepare and submit a class assignment as per procedure. Student N did not even print the front sheet which had been provided months before the assignment. He attended class and did not want to work,” the lecturer said. 

On the day of the incident, the lecturer said he had asked the student where his work was. Despite this assignment being class-based and therefore handwritten, the lecturer claimed the student tried to be funny by saying that it was on his laptop. 

“When I asked where the front sheet was, he said that he left it at home. I reminded him that this was the last day to finish off the work. Instead of apologising, he started waving his hands, accusing him (the lecturer) of confusion and changing the dates, saying 'għax int ilek tħawwad id-dati... xbajt tħawwad',” the lecturer said.

This exchange, he continued, escalated into searing and offensive language by the student and when the lecturer asked him to leave he remained seated. That was when the “aggressive action” against him occurred. 

“I left class shaking and with blood dripping from my face and was assisted by the management. I attended a clinic for treatment and have a scheduled appointment at Mater Dei for scans to determine if there are hidden fractures.” 

One of the placards displayed at the protest.

MUT president Marco Bonnici addressed criticism made at the fact that the lecturer had slammed his hands on the student’s desk before the attack. 

“When the footage (of the assault) was doing the rounds some were scandalised and said that it was unacceptable that a lecturer slammed the table,” Bonnici said.

“If we all together, educators or otherwise slammed our hands when it was necessary, then incidents like these could have been avoided,” he said.

We should all be reacting angrily, he said, to situations where families have been “abdicating from the responsibility of raising their children” and youths had easy access to substances, legal or otherwise, alcohol, sex and gambling.

Bonnici said educators should feel angry at youths who had no desire to work but wanted to find foreigners to exploit; when success was determined by who one knew and not what one knew, and when bullies were put on a pedestal and idolised.

Unprecedented levels of bullying, teens isolating themselves online as well as self-harm were also worth ‘slamming’ over Bonnici added.

“But instead of reacting we are choosing to close our eyes to these realities,” he said.

“We educators cannot close our eyes. If everyone is ready to abdicate responsibility to raise our children and youths, we are not ready to do so.”