Schools are being instructed to provide online teaching until the end of the scholastic year as a result of them being closed due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The online teaching directive was issued by the Ministry of Education as part of a wide package of measures agreed upon by a working group set up in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.
There is no mention in the directive on the possibility of starting the next scholastic year earlier, possibly at the start of September, in an attempt to make up for the current disruption. Schools have been closed since March 13.
The working group consists of representatives from State, Church and independent schools, together with the Malta Union of Teachers.
Though the ministry has been insisting that it was making up for the closure through remote learning, concerns have been expressed by parents on the lack of official minimum standards and parameters.
Under this latest directive, teachers are expected to provide online learning but should not be pressured to carry out live sessions through video streams. Instead, educators should use their discretion though they are being encouraged to use the school’s official platform to ensure support safety and security.
Parents, on the other hand, are being urged to retain “realistic expectations” on the type and extent of feedback that educators will be providing in the current circumstances.
Interaction with students should only take place during the allocated timetabled slots of the respective subjects and strictly within school hours. Online teaching on weekends and holidays is not being allowed.
As for Year 11 (Form 5) and second-year post-secondary classes, educators shall remain available during the third term as requested by students, albeit not following any formal structure.
Though educators are being instructed to cover the most important aspects of the respective syllabi, the working group acknowledged that it was not possible to cover everything for all year groups.
It was also decided that the implementation of learning outcome programmes, including the new SEC model, would be suspended during the next scholastic year and postponed to the following one starting in 2021.
Consequently, teachers in Year 1, Year 5 and Year 9 will continue to implement the present syllabi during the scholastic year 2020-2021. Furthermore, it was agreed that in order to focus exclusively on online teaching during this term, work on school development plans had been suspended.
The directive also states that full support would be given to ensure the protection of teachers’ intellectual property rights through the potential misuse of their original resources by third parties.
Schools are also being instructed to adopt a zero-tolerance policy with regards to online abusive behaviour.