The Malta Union of Teachers will not be issuing directives to members on how to vote in the referendum on European Union membership, MUT president John Bencini said.
The union would keep members informed of the process, but it was not the MUT's role to direct them.
"This is a historic moment that should encourage us to put aside partisan politics and workers' interests first and foremost," he said when he addressed the final session of the MUT's biennial general conference at Mount St Joseph, Targa Gap, Mosta, yesterday.
He said the MUT favoured EU membership because the principles of the EU were the same ones embraced by free trade unions, namely solidarity, social justice, workers' dignity, health and security, equal opportunities, access to information, education and training and decent conditions of work.
Giving an overview of the main issues confronting the MUT, he referred to physical and verbal attacks on teachers.
"It appears that the attacks are on the rise," he said. In 2000 there were nine attacks on teachers by parents and 11 attacks by students, two of which occurred in primary schools and involved students aged about 10."
Mr Bencini said that cases of verbal abuse and sexual harassment of young female teachers in boys' secondary schools were also on the increase, but the authorities appeared to be dragging their feet on this.
He referred to a "serious case" of sexual harassment of a woman teacher that occurred in a boys' secondary school this year, saying that all the Education Department had done was to simply move the student to another class.
Mr Bencini said failure in providing a quality education was almost always the result of insufficient or wrongly used resources.
"A school goes forward only when teachers are the protagonists, when they are involved and are given the opportunity to express their ideas," he said.
Sixty-three per cent of schools which had participated in an EU project insisted that the best evaluation was internal, he added.
Malta was moving in the right direction although there still remained a few school heads who thought they could continue to administer the school in a despotic way without consulting anyone.
Mr Bencini also referred to discussions with the government over improving the financial situation of heads of school and education officers in view of their additional responsibilities.
He said that if the situation remained the same, it would not be long before the government would find it extremely difficult to fill these positions. In fact, vacancies already existed for education officers.
One of the 55 motions approved by the conference called on the MUT to work with the authorities to set up a Permanent National Council for Education.
The council would include representatives of everyone involved in education, particularly the government and the opposition, and would have the role of seeking a wider consensus in order to provide the necessary stability in education. This would avoid the system being shocked every time there was a change in government.
Another approved motion urges the authorities to set up a board of discipline in schools. The board would include the head or assistant head and teachers/officials who would be responsible for matters related to discipline.