The long-awaited health protocols on the reopening of schools in September will be published after a meeting that Malta’s health and education authorities will be holding with the World Health Organisation on Monday.
Parents and educators are eagerly awaiting the publication of the protocols ahead of the reopening of schools after Education Minister Owen Bonnici told the press last week that the guidelines would be made public within days.
Many parents and educators took the comment to mean the new procedures would be shared with the public by the end of the week.
But Times of Malta is informed the guidelines for the reopening of schools will only be published after a meeting with the WHO on Monday.
Bonnici, Health Minister Chris Fearne and the Superintendent of Public Health Charmaine Gauci are expected to join counterparts from all over Europe for the virtual meeting.
Sources involved in the drafting of the protocols have confirmed that the measures have been finalised, however it was deemed premature to publish them before the meeting.
“The WHO might provide certain information and guidance which will be useful to include and so it would be counterproductive to publish the protocols only to have to amend them a couple of days later,” one source said.
Although the authorities do not expect much to be changed since the measures being proposed are similar to those already in place in summer schools, the direction from the WHO is deemed crucial.
It is understood that any suggestions made during the meeting will be reviewed and taken into consideration, even if it means revising some of the existing measures.
These rules never were and will not be set in stone
“These rules never were and will not be set in stone because, as we have seen, the situation changes from day to day. So even after they are finalised, they could still be amended to reflect the situation on the day,” the source said.
Schools were shut in March as the COVID-19 outbreak hit the country.
Meanwhile, the Malta Union of Teachers said last week it would be meeting with Gauci and the education authorities, an important step for educators to have “a clear picture of the situation”.
It said that in view of the situation, the union would be holding a council meeting today and others for members tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday.
Meetings with the government and the respective authorities will continue to be held so that the union would be able to give its reactions to the proposals being made, it said.
The next few days were crucial, the union added, as it would be issuing its position after evaluating the situation from the point of view of implementation of measures as well as in consideration of the number of positive cases and the transmission rate.
The union said it would also be meeting local and European experts.
The principles that should guide any decision remained the health and safety of educators and students, it added.
The Union of Professional Educators (UPE) complained that it had not been granted the possibility to voice its members’ opinion.
“It is disconcerting to see how social dialogue is completely ignored by the ministry with a union which holds a good portion of the educational sector as members,” it said.
It added that despite being promised, on several occasions, that the intervention of the UPE would be called upon, all such intentions fell into oblivion whenever decisions were taken.