Iklin residents are tired of having to put up with the daily “screeching voice” emitted from the loudspeakers of a school that bellows out music and announcements throughout most of the day.

As their pleas to lower the volume fall on deaf ears, they have now come together and sent a petition to the school and the education authorities to stop the noise. 

About 50 residents, who live in the streets surrounding the Naxxar Maria Regina school, signed the petition. It was sent to the government school as well as the education ministry, the Iklin and Naxxar local councils, the police and the Environment and Resources Authority.

When contacted, the school said the head cannot speak to the media and any questions had to be sent through the education ministry. Questions sent to the education ministry last November – when the residents first approached Times of Malta – remained unanswered.

In the petition that was sent last week, the residents of the upper Iklin area explain that they have been tolerating the noise for over a year and it has become “increasingly loud” for “no valid reason”.

The noise started as early as 8am and continued – at intervals – until about 3.15pm. It included music and announcements, such as bus routes.

In the petition, they said that the “sheer screeching voice prevents us from having a comprehensible conversation. It is also disturbing persons who work from home and children from studying, besides the residences at the Hill Top Garden Senior Care Home”.

The residents also wrote: “Despite our complaints, the school management has preferred to ignore them. To add insult to injury, the volume has increased over the past months.”

They are calling for the school to redirect the speakers and lower the volume.