MCAST principal to leave and take up role of director general at Education Ministry
MCAST principal Stephen Cachia is expected to leave his role and be appointed as Director General for Lifelong learning at the Ministry for Education.
Cachia confirmed to newsbook.com that he took this role after a call for applications by the Ministry for Education.
Cachia has been the MCAST principal for the last 5 years, with his contract expiring in October. Last month he sent a letter to all the MCAST staff to inform them that he will be resigning from his post but will not leave MCAST until a substitute is chosen.
His announced departure comes at a time when MCAST is involved in a dispute with the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) over a new collective agreement.
Yesterday, MUT president Marco Bonnici said that MCAST was trying to silence teachers after a court on Wednesday provisionally upheld a request by the college to stop the union from taking industrial action.
MCAST said it could not understand why the MUT had again resorted to industrial action over collective agreement talks when “progress” had been reached on a number of issues. It said that while it understood the right to resort to industrial action, the strike would have come during exams period, directly disrupting the college’s operations and worst of all, the students’ exams preparations. The college management said it had a duty to safeguard students’ interests.
Cachia has recently started to attend meetings with the University of Malta Senate as a representative of the Minister for Education.