The Education Ministry and the Curia must take responsibility for St Albert the Great College, which is in a desperate situation, the president of the Malta Union of Teachers said on Monday.

“The school is on its knees as the situation gets worse. The authorities cannot brush aside their responsibilities,” Marco Bonnici said at a press conference. 

“If they do not act the situation will continue to collapse.” 

The college, which is run by the Dominican Order, was plunged into crisis when its headmaster, Mario Mallia, was sacked in July. A quarter of the staff, mostly in the secondary school, has since left. 

The Curia last month said it had drawn up a contingency plan for the school in case the situation worsened, and parents last week in an open letter demanded that the plan be put into action. 

But the school’s rector, Fr Aaron Zahra promised stability, saying he expects vacancies to be filled in the coming weeks.

The Education Ministry said it was monitoring the situation and was meeting stakeholders to ensure the way forward for the school.

Bonnici said emails sent to the Church authorities and the Education Ministry regarding the college have remained unanswered. 

“We are asking the Curia and the ministry what exactly they are doing to protect the rights of the educators and children,” he said. 

He said teachers at the college have reached out to the union to see how they could resign and that MUT has received feedback that more resignations would take place.

“We have never seen so many resignations take place at a Maltese school, all the result of a hard-headed rector who wishes to run the school in his own way,” Bonnici said. 

He said MUT would be issuing directives to members as required, ensuring the needs of the educators but also the students' wellbeing. 

“Resignations are increasing, the school is still running without a licence and nothing is being done, we cannot let this continue to happen,” he said.

Malta Union of Teachers members addressing journalists on Monday. Photo: MUT

Union questions EU averages on class size

Bonnici also referred to a recent EU report which found that  Malta’s education system has one of the best student-per-teacher rates in Europe. 

According to the data, there is an average of 8.8 students for every teacher. Bonnici questioned the validity of the data. 

“We want to know who is providing these figures, as most classrooms are packed with students, often in breach of the minimum conditions for classroom space,” Bonnici said. 

He said the average classroom had 20 pupils, a calculation which included the small schools in Gozo.

2,000 educators left without a state-provided laptop

Bonnici also complained that some 2,000 educators have still not been provided with a laptop computer by the authorities. This, he said, was a ‘longstanding saga’. A second tender was issued in the past months for the provision of laptops after the first contract was not big enough. 

“We have also received reports of educators whose laptops are faulty, do not switch on or are too slow to use. Teachers end up using their own personal devices,” Bonnici said. 

He said the union and Education Ministry will be meeting later this week to discuss the process and facilitate the distribution.