About 80 of the primary classes in state schools are still without a teacher.
However, the government and the educators’ union are confident the issue will be resolved by the time pupils start returning to school on Wednesday.
The shortage has been compounded by the strict health protocols in place to control the COVID-19 outbreak, which has meant an increase in the number of classrooms to ensure physical distancing between children.
The government and the Malta Union of Teachers have agreed to issue a call for peripatetic teachers to fill the gaps.
These are teachers who move from school to school to teach subjects such as art, music, PSD and science. There are some 530 such teachers.
Concerns have, however, been expressed on the impact this decision might have on the teaching of humanities to students at primary schools, with preference possibly being given to the often-considered core subjects like Maths, English and Maltese.
MUT head Marco Bonnici dismissed this concern, saying the number of teachers required for primary classes is a small fraction of those who generally teach the humanities.
“Through the agreement with the government, we will be ensuring that no service is dropped and that students are offered all the subjects they would normally have,” he said.
“We are informed that the call has been well received and I am confident that the shortage will be addressed because a lot of teachers have already come forward.”
Had talks not been held on the situation, it would have been “much worse”, he said.
“We need to keep in mind that we are in a pandemic which by its very nature is extraordinary. Had the MUT not come to this agreement with the authorities, the government could have just picked 80 teachers and moved them to primary.
“We did not want that to happen because we wanted this to be done in a structured way that did not impact any other services,” Bonnici said.
The system in place, which would also ensure junior teachers are the first to be chosen for the job, was a “fair and just” one, he added.
Sources within the education ministry told Times of Malta the agreement was accepted by the union because it protected both educators and students and ensured no subjects would be dropped.
One source echoed the union’s assurance that the move will address the shortage on time.
“We have spent days discussing this with the MUT and we believe this will not only successfully sort out the issue but also make sure it is done in a fair way.
“A good number of teachers have already come forward,” the source said. State and Church school students are set to start returning to school on Wednesday, with all pupils to be in class by the following week.
The reopening of these schools was postponed by a week after teachers complained classes were not yet ready to welcome students back especially as the number of new COVID-19 cases continued to rise.