Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1313317
6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 29 NOVEMBER 2020 OPINION Take three for education – challenges of the sector DURING the last weekend we had the third Minister for the education sector for 2020, with the Prime Minister announcing Hon. Justyne Caruana replac- ing Hon. Owen Bonnici after merely ten months. Minister Bonnici had, at the time, re- placed long-standing Minister Evarist Bartolo, who has been Education Minister since the start of the PL's first legislature in 2013. Many were taken by surprise about this change, particularly due to the fact that Hon. Bonn- ici has led the education sector during the unprecedented sit- uation of the pandemic which has seen the closure of schools in March and their difficult reopening, with a number of health and safety measures, in October. A new chapter brings new challenges, but there is no re- set button in education. The new minister, who surely has new ideas and proposals for the sector, must first take stock of the current situation. The education sector had its strug- gles before the pandemic, and these were either shelved due to COVID-19 or else they be- came even more challenging since March. Unless these are managed, there is no way that educators shall accept to move on and to implement new pro- posals and ideas. I shall be outlining some of these many challenges. Shortages The shortage of educators is a factor which must not be overlooked, even if schools are seemingly managing. The implementation of health protocols has seen two major changes, which has reduced the impact of teacher short- age. Changes in timetables in secondary and the temporary suspension of a number of services in primary has seen shortages being filled by exist- ing teachers. However, all this is a temporary measure and the post-COVID period shall see this problem re-emerge possi- bly with more intensity. Similarly, during the pan- demic we have seen several va- cancies, including LSEs, being filled by employees who lost their original employment in other sectors. Whilst this ad- dressed some of the difficul- ties of the sector, it cannot be viewed as a longstanding ac- complishment. These employ- ees may easily return to their former employment or exper- tise following the pandemic, leading to an increase in short- ages. Training Several measures were im- plemented in the past years to address training needs of ed- ucators, both to access educa- tion grades and for retraining. Whilst a number of courses are being offered to access educa- tion grades, some of which are also being offered during the evening, we still lack sufficient training opportunities for edu- cators to improve their respec- tive positions. The situation of supply grades is still not being addressed well, with many edu- cators in these grades not hav- ing opportunities to improve their qualifications despite their will to undertake courses. Whilst the Faculty of Educa- tion at the University of Malta is the leading teacher-training institution, the Institute for Education and MCAST are al- so running accredited courses which are well recognised. A number of training institutions have also joined the field in the past years, and this change re- quires synergy with checks and balances to be in place. Reforms Education has experienced periods of ongoing changes. A term once coined by a former shadow minister, 'reform fa- tigue' is still being experienced. Reforms have however con- tinued despite the claim that changes are being made to ad- dress previous shortcomings of the system. There is room for consolidation of reforms but certainly no room for a rat-race of new reforms brought about simply by a change in minister. A shortcoming which persists to date is the analysis of re- forms. No proper such analy- sis of reforms in education has been undertaken, and the latest research to try to address this, which was being carried out by Prof. Mark Borg, was halted early this year when there was the first change in minister. Conditions of work This aspect is central to the work of the MUT and its ongo- ing discussions with the min- istry. There are agreements which are still pending, and their closure is necessary to improve conditions of work of affected grades. During the past year we experienced two factors which have delayed ne- gotiations and hence the clo- sure of agreements. The first was the change in leadership at the start of the year and the second was the pandem- ic. Both were, at least, excuses brought about by respective government officials to delay negotiations. However, on the other hand, we have seen that the same excuses did not halt the conclusion of a number of agreements in other sectors. The MUT is therefore pushing forward for the current pend- ing agreements to be conclud- ed at the earliest not to dis- criminate between sectors and employees. In conclusion, we have seen too many unjust criticism of the work of educators during the pandemic. My appeal to the new minister is to value educa- tors, acknowledge all the good work and act hand in hand to address the challenges that we face. I take the opportunity to thank outgoing education min- ister Owen Bonnici and to wel- come the new education minis- ter, Justyne Caruana. Marco Bonnici Marco Bonnici is MUT president