Updated 7.30pm
A teacher from a government school was told off by her headmaster after she spoke out publicly against a new Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) system that introduced constant assessments.
Last week, on Jon Mallia’s programme Il-Każin fuq Tokis, maths teacher Joanna Mallia warned Education Minister Clifton Grima that the new system was putting immense pressure on students.
In comments to Times of Malta, Joanna Mallia defended her headmaster, saying he was just following orders of “someone from above”.
However, the headmaster - Jonathan Portanier Mifsud - later said on social media he was not following any orders when he discussed the matter with Mallia. He added he had not intimidated anyone.
In September, the Education Ministry issued new rules saying that teachers must receive written permission to speak to the media.
The policy states that educators who obtain permission to speak to the media must ensure their comments reflect Education Ministry policies and objectives and refrain from promoting their personal opinions or making statements that might be perceived as politically biased.
Following the programme, Mallia was called into the headmaster’s office on Tuesday.
“I didn’t ask for permission because I was not representing the school, I was representing myself,” she told Times of Malta.
Mallia insisted she did nothing wrong as she was simply stating the truth.
“If something isn’t right, I’ll say it,” she said.
Under the new system, 30% of the SEC (O Level) final grade now comes from ongoing assessments conducted over the final three years of secondary school, while the final written examination accounts for 70%.
Headmaster Portanier Mifsud later took to Facebook to "clarify" the matter.
For as long as he has worked in the education sector "no one has ever dictated what I should say or do, especially when it comes to teachers who discuss education in our schools on social media", he said.
It is not the first time that teachers asked for permission to do so, and such permission, he said, has never been refused, even when approval was sought overnight.
Referring to the Mallia case, he said all he did was - as headmaster - ask the teacher about the programme when she went to his office as she needed a signature.
"I asked two things: whether she asked for permission like every public official [and], more importantly, to provide names of students she told [Jon Mallia's] programme were missing school because of the stress caused by such assessments.
"[I asked for their names] so that we can help them out, because, for us, students' wellbeing is a priority," Portanier Mifsud said, adding that so far, none of the students have been identified.
He said that at no point did he intimidate anyone, and the discussion he had with the teacher was an "educated and mature" one.
Earlier, the teachers' union said teachers were “duty bound to engage in dialogue about the profession and aspects related to it”.
“Educators cannot be stopped from expressing their professional judgement in public," the Malta Union of Teachers added.
Questions were sent to the Ministry.
PN says order came from ministry
In a separate statement, the PN said those who sought to intimidate teachers were the greatest enemies of freedom of expression.
"Educators are the ones who teach our children the importance of expressing themselves and their right to do so. However, anyone who criticises Robert Abela’s Government faces severe consequences," the Opposition said in a statement.
The party claimed the headmaster had summoned Mallia following an "order by the ministry".
The PN said such actions were reminiscent of the government of the 1980s.
"A minister who instructs his subordinates to warn a teacher is a disgrace to the ministry he represents. Minister Clifton Grima has repeatedly stated he has never prevented any educator from criticising or speaking out.
"However, the events of recent days clearly show that there is a big difference between the minister’s words and reality," the party alleged.