Pupils are still not being offered art lessons in primary schools because of the pandemic.

Teachers of these subjects continue to serve as substitute tutors after the number of classes had to be increased due to COVID-19 health protocols.

The government and the Malta Union of Teachers had agreed to bring in peripatetic teachers to fill those gaps. These are teachers who move from school to school to teach subjects such as art, music, PSD and science. There are some 530 such teachers.

This means that, over a month since the start of the new scholastic year, children are still only focusing on the so-called core subjects.

The situation has sparked outrage among the arts community, prompting artist and professor at the Faculty of Education Raphael Vella to start a petition addressed to Education Minister Owen Bonnici.

“We are facing a situation in which learning in the arts has been effectively brought to a halt on the basis of an administrative decision with no apparent basis in research or forward planning.

“This decision can have a detrimental effect on children’s, especially vulnerable children’s, educational growth and well-being and transmits the idea that art education is non-essential in the educational system and society at large,” Vella said.

Close to 170 people signed the petition within hours.

Sources within the education ministry have confirmed the issue is being discussed with the teachers’ union after a “stocktake” of the situation was made during the mid-term holiday in early November.

“The issue is being tackled. We want students to have the opportunity to learn every subject but this year is an exceptional one and there had to be some changes, otherwise we could have had a situation where children are sent home because they don’t have a teacher,” one source said.  Due to the limited number of teachers, it is understood that, even if there is an improvement, pupils will have to stay without the full programme that was on offer in previous years.