Updated 4.15pm with letter to the MUT by the Commissioner for the Rights of Persons with Disability.
Parents of some non-verbal children are not being kept informed about their child’s school day because educators are not documenting the daily outcome as they usually do – due to union directives.
Other parents whose children have learning difficulties have also voiced concern because meetings to discuss their children’s individual education programme (IEP) have been cancelled.
Both the Autism Parents’ Association and the Commissioner for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities called on the Malta Union of Teachers to lift industrial action which affects students with disabilities.
The Autism Parents’ Association said LSEs and teaching staff of resource centres should be exempted from the union's directives.
“They support our most vulnerable children, many of whom cannot speak. Parents of these students rely on communication with LSEs to know the fundamentals, for example if a child has eaten. There are students who cannot attend school because the LSEs cannot implement coping strategies provided by the child’s therapist,” the association said as it supported the union in achieving improved working conditions and a fair salary for educators.
Teachers and other educators at Church and State schools are following MUT directives that came into force on Monday, with the union having ordered its members to strike on November 27 in protest.
This is a result of a failure to agree on a revised collective agreement for educators in these schools. A meeting between the MUT and the government on Monday to improve teachers’ wages and avert the planned strike was inconclusive. Another meeting will be held at the end of the week.
The first set of directives apply to supply and regular kindergarten educators, education officers, heads of department, teachers, LSEs, assistant heads, heads of sector and trainers, among others.
Because of the directives, educators are not carrying out class assessments, submitting attendance sheets or taking part in meetings with parents, among other things.
Some measures impact children with learning difficulties. They are not using the communication book in which LSEs write down important notes for parents of non-verbal children to be aware of what happened in class. They are also not participating in IEP meetings. In such meetings, school staff and parents come together to discuss, develop and review a student’s IEP.
Parents voiced their concerns on social media and others spoke to Times of Malta.
“My non-verbal kid came home with all his lunch meaning he was not prompted to eat… I don’t know anything that happened to him throughout the day as he cannot tell me and there was no note in the communication book,” one mother wrote.
The father of a 14-year-old severely autistic boy said he, together with the child’s therapist, decided not to send the boy to school as it was unsafe due to the directives. “They are stopping teachers in engaging strategies to help him cope, which would lead to his anxiety getting out of control resulting in a negative experience for him and other children around him,” the father said.
MUT president Marco Bonnici said: “Once MUT issues a directive it affects operations involving students. There is no directive which impacts no one, otherwise it would not be a directive.
“With regard to IEP and communications, these are internal processes which do not affect the curricular entitlement of affected students.
“The MUT is ensuring that the impact on students is minimised and appreciates the cooperation of all.”
The Commissioner for the Rights of Persons with Disability, Rhoda Garland. in a letter to the MUT voiced her concerns about the union's directives, particularly with regard to non-verbal students.
"These students are amongst the most vulnerable members of the student body of our islands. When used in relation to these students, the communication book is not merely a tool which is conducive to their educational development but an essential tool leading to their overall health and wellbeing. It is the sole means by which parents can make sure that they are well fed, they have taken the prescribed medication and that their toileting needs have been met while their children are in the care and custody of the school."
The commissioner said that while it recognised and supported the legitimate plight of educators to obtain a better financial package, which would surely lead them to better fulfil their essential role in society, it asked the union to at least suspend the directive which forbids the use of the communication book vis-à-vis non-verbal students.