Primary school children need lessons in Personal and Social Development (PSD) to serve as a safe space to voice concerns and worries, teachers of the subject have said, amid concerns it could be dropped.
In a statement, the Malta PSD Association said primary school teachers might not have enough time to conduct these lessons if they had a syllabus of academic subjects.
The comments come after the teachers’ union declared a dispute with the government over the possibility of using educators who teach non-academic subjects to fill shortages in primary schools.
This would include PSD teachers, who would have to take over a primary classroom and focus on academic subjects instead of personal and social development.
Times of Malta reported this week that state schools are missing some 80 teachers at primary level, just before children return to school next week.
In the statement, the association said that, after last year’s shortage, caused by the need to have fewer students per classroom because of the COVID-19 restrictions, leading to the need for more teachers, there had been “enough time” for the issue to be addressed.
“By solving this problem in this way, we are going against our own national curriculum framework which advocates quality education for all and the principles it deems important,” it said.
“We would also like to stress the importance of both academic and non-academic subjects as students need a holistic education which incorporates the academic, physical, creative and social areas of their lives,” the association added.
By sidelining non-academic subjects such as PSD, drama, art and music, the idea that academic subjects are more important will be instilled, the PSD teachers said.
“Moreover, the problem will keep incurring in the later years when the students will be doing the subjects without a proper basis.
“Since we are currently living in a global pandemic, non-academic subjects are more important than ever, where students can express themselves in numerous ways.”
The association has called for the authorities to ensure that students get “a reasonable number of PSD lessons per term” and for the shortages to be addressed ahead of the start of the school year.
The Union of Professional Educators has also said that it will be registering a dispute over the ministry decision, saying that many peripatetic, complementary and services teachers were still without any information about where they would be teaching or what grade they were assigned, with "literally hours left before the start of the school year."