Rain or shine, Jessica* was expected to give PE lessons outdoors or in a corridor because her school did not have an indoor gym.
“If it rained, I was expected to do the lesson just the same. For the children it would be a 45-minute lesson [which is still not on]… but for me it was six hours in the rain.
“Then they offered me a solution: to do the PE lesson in a school corridor,” Jessica, who had been teaching for 10 years before moving into the aviation sector, told a researcher conducting a study into why educators resign from the profession in Malta.
Teaching resources and school facilities are among the causes of teacher attrition, according to a study by Fabian Galea, which has just been published in the Malta Review of Educational Research electronic journal.
According to data quoted by the study, between 2008 and 2018, the number of teachers who resigned spiked by 119 per cent while the number of students registered for the teacher education courses at the University of Malta dropped by 20 per cent between 2016 and 2018.
Galea sought to find the motives for teacher resignations through 15 narratives. The interviewees were either graduate teachers who never entered the profession or those who resigned to seek alternative employment.
You’re only a teacher, you know you don’t do much
His study flagged 16 determinants, including remuneration, career advancement, work outside school hours, students’ behaviour and parents’ attitude, stress and job satisfaction as well as education policy and reforms.
Society’s view of the teaching profession is also a cause for resignation.
Eva*, who spent six months in the profession, said society viewed teaching as a “great job for a mum or a parent”.
According to fellow interviewee Donna* this is attributed to the limited and potentially jealous reasoning done by members of the public as they “just look at the job as one that lasts from 8am to 2pm... they actually look at the holidays only and say you’re only a teacher, you know you don’t do much.”
To make matters worse, according to Jessica, it was not just the public who had such a demeaning perception.
“Other professionals see you as a baby-sitter rather than a professional,” she said.
Students’ behaviour also weighed down on the teachers.
Clayton* recalled being shocked at the students’ “swear words in every sentence”.
Isaac*, who had 10 years’ experience in the sector, recounted an episode where his colleagues had scalding water thrown at them and other instances when “teachers were touched inappropriately” by students.
*Names were changed