In a Press Release issued on 16 January 2017, the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) makes a number of unjustified statements regarding the Faculty of Education, the very Faculty of which several of the Union’s members, including the Council members themselves, are graduates.
The MUT refers to the recent reforms in Initial Teacher Education and foresees, for unmentioned reasons, that this will have detrimental effects on the profession. This is stated in spite of the fact that the MUT was informed of these reforms as early as 2013, was regularly invited by the Faculty to meetings and took part in the discussions that ensued. Its officials were supportive of the proposal to raise the entry to the teaching profession to Master level. The MUT did not approach the Faculty of Education with possible alternative models in teacher education nor did it express opposition to the introduction of the new degree.
While doing well to underline the problems that the teaching profession is currently facing, the MUT refers to the “inflexibility of the Faculty of Education in providing an evening PGCE course for graduates”. This statement is incorrect, because the Faculty offered this part-time evening Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) course in 2011-12. The uptake for this course was very poor and only three students completed it. As a result of this, the course has not been offered again since then. Nevertheless, the Faculty is currently negotiating with various stakeholders locally in order to provide Initial Teacher Education models which can suit the different needs of our educational system.
The Faculty reiterates that through the introduction of the Master in Teaching and Learning (MTL), a course which was discussed with all stakeholders and which was reviewed by international colleagues, it aims to prepare quality teachers, for the benefit of all schools and learners. While the MUT, therefore, invites the country to “look beyond” courses offered by the Faculty, we will continue striving to ensure that professional standards are set and maintained, through collaboration with all stakeholders - including the MUT - and not through antagonism. We believe that it is only through this collaboration that teachers’ conditions in schools can be improved, and the crises referred to by the MUT averted.