Trained school staff members must search for suspicious devices whenever schools receive bomb threats, an Education Ministry document circulated on Tuesday states.

The circular has come under fire from the Malta Union of Teachers, which instructed its members to ignore the instructions.

“The communication states that the Head of School needs to appoint a ‘search team’ to search for bombs in schools. This is unheard of and surely MUT will not accept that educators go to search for bombs in schools during a bomb scare,” the union said in a statement.

The ministry issued the procedure document one day after several schools received an identical bomb threat via email.

The email, which is being investigated by the police’s cybercrime unit, repeated various Islamic tropes but was also sent to a Muslim school. It proved to be a false threat. 

But MUT representatives said the incident highlighted a lack of planning and coordination, and noted that while some schools were evacuated, others were not.

They said authorities needed to provide a “clear protocol” for handling such threats.

That protocol was issued a day later, on Tuesday, in the form of a two-page document prepared in collaboration with explosives experts at the Armed Forces of Malta.

It instructs school staff to inform emergency services immediately and carry out a quick search of the school premises. Children should remain inside classrooms during the search and glass doors and windows opened.

The search team should be set up by the head of school and undertake regular training and drill exercises, a footnote in the document states.

If a suspicious object is found, everyone should be evacuated and a headcount carried out, the document states.

In a statement published on its website, the MUT said authorities must find another way of dealing with the problem.

“The solution is to address those inefficiencies and not to expose educators to risks by looking for explosive devices in schools. The MUT is directing all Heads of Schools and educators to ignore the said communication,” it said.