The Education Ministry has issued a call to re-employ retired teachers to replace those who have had to quarantine or self-isolate due to COVID-19.

Graham Sansone, executive head of the Union of Professional Educators, said the recruitment of retired teachers through a circular issued by the ministry confirmed what the union has long been saying about understaffing in schools and the effect of the pandemic on education.

The circular, seen by Times of Malta, includes a long list of subjects which the retired teachers may apply to teach, in both primary and secondary level classes.

Sansone said his union had warned that the pandemic would decimate the availability of teachers due to contagion or mandatory quarantine. “Our human resources have so significantly been reduced, that it is being considered necessary to call on those who had retired after years of service,” he said.

“At this point, one can only hope that the pig-headed decision to ignore the union’s plea to protect our highly-trained workforce with more stringent and drastic measures will not result in a situation detrimental to our students nationwide,” Sansone said in a statement.

The union head said he doubted retired teachers could deliver the high-tech education the ministry has been requiring since the start of the pandemic.

He said it was “preposterous” that retired teachers who should be enjoying protection from the pandemic, are expected to sit in classrooms full of children.

“Will there be a sufficiently strong response from these veterans of education to ensure that classrooms are adequately manned? Will they be able to be up and ready to adapt to the drastic changes in the curriculum which were made during the pandemic,” he asked.

“There seems to be a naive attitude of ‘Let’s hope for the best, and if we fail at least we will have tried’ going on here, which defies logic. There seems to be no rhyme or reason in continuing to behave as if all is well, especially in the wake of a promise of an imminent third wave,” Sansone said.

Questions sent to the ministry, including directly to Education Minister Justyne Caruana by e-mail, remained unanswered by the time of writing.

This is not the first time that the government resorted to retired teachers to fill gaps in the sector. In 2017, retired teachers in possession of a warrant were offered jobs in state schools as the government was seeking to deal with a shortage.

The call had followed one which had created outrage when the government had first attempted to employ university students to fill the gaps.