As school is set to start in the coming days, teachers have already been ordered by a union to follow directives.

The Union of Professional Educators asked members and non-members not to send resources for photocopying at the government printing press and those with full load not to do extra duties.

The union said that although the last sectoral agreement signed by another union was meant to address teachers’ heavy workloads, teachers of Maltese and mathematics were given a load of 25 lessons each per week and education officials were unwilling to offer any solution or compensation.

The printing press directive follows a decision by education authorities in the last scholastic year to enforce a circular issued by the Office of the Prime Minister in 1995 laying down that all printing by government departments must be done at the State printing press.