Educators need trust if they are to do their jobs well: Greens

Educators must be given more leeway to teach students as they see fit, with less centralised control by education directorates, the Green Party believes.

“It is only when educators feel respected that the chronic lack of teachers can be adequately addressed,” ADPD chairperson Sandra Gauci said on Saturday.

Educators need trust to do their jobs and directorates should only serve as support structures, she said.

Some aspects required national policy, Gauci acknowledged, but when it comes to others – she mentioned discipline, multiculturalism and various curricular aspects – the ADPD leader argued for more autonomy for schools and teachers.

Gauci said educators were burnt out by a flurry of reforms and changes that came with too little time to adapt and digest. Many now felt like a mere number, lost in large institutions.

“We need to keep doing our best to help educators give their best in an environment which feels safe, welcoming and democratic, backed up with a decent pay which reflects the central role that educators play and the challenges they face every day”, Gauci said.

The ADPD leader was speaking at a press conference outside Birkirkara primary school, with the venue selected to highlight the importance of teachers and other educators.

She was joined in speaking by ADPD deputy secretary general Mario Mallia, a former school headmaster.

'Youths alienated by contradictions in politics'

Mallia said young people are being alienated from politics by a failed political system ridden with contradictions between what students are taught at school and what politicians do in practice.

Fallout from the Sofia public inquiry was the latest case in point, Mallia said, with accountability applying to all but those at the top.

While public officials have been made to resign following the inquiry, ministers have not.

The inquiry, Mallia noted, had found that many public entities had more board members than inspectors on the ground. That lends the “distinct impression that

on a government board,” he said. 

 “Youth are being fed the impression that money makes inroads and that the country is up for sale,” Mallia, a former headmaster, said.  

While schools worked to teach children about a sense of community, politics seems to pedal egoism.

“Schools teach accountability but all around them, being self serving and protected by friends of friends is becoming the norm,” Mallia said. “ Schools teach children the importance of skills and effort. Politics teaches the importance of who you know.”

All that was leading to young people turning away from politics, he said. Educators were doing a brilliant job but political leaders also had to lead by example.