Teachers have been ordered by their union not to set foot in schools unless they need to pick up exam papers.

Marco Bonnici, president of the Malta Union of Teachers told Times of Malta that some educators, including learning support assistants, teachers and heads of schools, have been asked to go to school every day.

The reasons varied, but most were asked to go to school to prepare textbooks that students left at school when the government announced the shutdown, so that they can be collected by parents.

The requests have come from college principals or heads of schools, Bonnici said.

While some schools staggered the visits by drawing up a schedule for educators to drop by at different times and on different days, others asked the whole staff complement – up to 120 educators to go to school at one go.

The union said it was not against educators going to school, but this needed to be done in an organised manner and in agreement with MUT.

“We are not against teachers going to school to prepare essential material for collection, however, this should be done in an organised manner: if possible staff should not be called in multiple times if they cannot carry out all the tasks during one visit,” Bonnici said. 

The wellbeing of educators needed to be safeguarded just like everybody else's, and that was why te MUT was ordering its members to refuse to go to school, Bonnici said.

The only exception is to collect exam papers and marking schedules that might have been stored at school. Any other requests need to be agreed upon with the union. 

Schools will remain closed until the end of June.

Students who were due to sit for Ordinary level exams will instead be assessed by the MATSEC board based on their mock examination results, or else be given the choice to sit for their exams during a September examination session.