‘Sweltering heat’ experienced in summer schools worries parents
Power supply is not sufficient to cater for the increased demand
As temperatures soar, several parents have voiced concern about the sweltering heat their children are enduring while attending summer classes hosted in state-owned schools.
Parents complained about the lack of air conditioning, or malfunctioning systems, in a range of schools.
In a comment on Facebook, one parent vented: “Qawra Primary School has no air conditioning during summer school and the classrooms become unbearably hot. The children and staff are expected to spend hours in these conditions every day. Is it really fair for either the students or the employees to have to cope with this level of heat?”
The parent clarified that the school has AC units but they have not been working since May, “so these children also did their exams in these horrible conditions”.
Several other parents also raised concerns about the heat at St Paul’s Bay Primary, where “conditions are terrible with no AC… While we parents working at work under AC, but our children melting. I feel very bad every single day”.
Another parent said that Gżira Primary also has no air conditioning, adding it “should be mandatory in every school as temperatures increase year by year”.
Asked about the issue, the president of the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT), Marco Bonnici, said there is no comprehensive plan for air conditioning in schools despite their year-round use.
“Some refurbished schools are being equipped with air conditioning but the power supply is not sufficient to cater for the increased demand. The plan needs to be a holistic one, which shall provide these essential devices in all schools,” he said.
Petition
The issue has persisted for years. In 2019, thousands of parents, relatives and teachers signed a petition calling on the government to install cooling systems in classrooms after children returned home from summer school soaked in sweat.
At the time, the government said it would install air conditioning units in schools where the electrical infrastructure could withstand the increased power demand.
Statistics obtained by Times of Malta later showed that, in 2021, almost three-quarters of state-run schools lacked cooling systems.
In 2022, Prime Minister Robert Abela promised to install air conditioning in all schools across Malta and Gozo as part of an “extensive investment” in modernising classrooms and a “strong” infrastructural investment in schools.
Replying to questions by Times of Malta, the Ministry for Education and Sport said it considers improving the teaching and working environment in schools to be “a priority”. It said state schools are fully equipped with air-conditioning systems.
“The installation of air conditioning in the remaining schools will be carried out through a phased programme over the course of the next few years. This forms part of a wider programme of works aimed at improving school environments, including upgrades to ventilation systems, apertures and other infrastructure. More detailed details shall be communicated in the near future,” it said.