The Malta Union of Teachers said on Tuesday that it will not tolerate a situation where COVID-19 rules are broken so that schools are used as polling stations. 

Over the years, several classrooms housed polling booths in general and European Parliament elections.

In a statement, the union said it had written to the Education Ministry expressing its concern about disturbance to schools and classrooms because of the election. It pointed out that space in classrooms is currently being used to the full due to COVID-19 protocols and any election material, including polling booths deposited in classrooms before the election day will be in breach of protocols (as pupils have to sit closer together.)

"Irrespective of election requirements, the MUT shall not accept that educators work in classrooms when protocols cannot be observed," it said.

The union said it was also concerned about the situation of having the entire village population visiting schools on a Saturday to vote and then having educators and students returning to schools the following Monday without any cleaning taking place and with election material including voting booths left in classrooms.

The ministry asked the ministry what its plans are to ensure that educators and students return to school on the Monday after polling day and find schools which are sanitised and observing protocols.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.