Government not distributing laptops to educators is ‘shameful’ – MUT

The government’s lack of distribution of laptops to educators in state and church schools is ‘shameful’, the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) has said in a press statement.

In 2016, the government announced a €15.4 million investment in state schools, which included the distribution of over 7,000 laptops to teaching staff, including learning support assistants and kindergarten assistants.

Three years later, educators working in church schools were given free laptops as a result of a €2.1 million agreement signed between Malta and the Vatican.

Despite these investments, many teachers are still waiting on their laptops to arrive, leaving them no choice but to use antiquated computers, the MUT said.

The MUT stated that having a laptop for work is especially crucial during the pandemic, where online teaching and working with recent technology has become “essential”.

“The situation cannot be described other than shameful,” it said.

Some educators, it continued, were given alternative laptops by the government while waiting for their work laptops to be repaired. In other cases, many educators “were not even contacted” by the government after being told that they were in need of new laptops.

Many church schools have antiquated computers that haven’t been used in over 10 years, the MUT said. Every independent school is different, it continued, which is why individual evaluations ought to be carried out to assess their distinct situations and make changes that tailor to their technological needs.

“The MUT will continue putting pressure on this situation until it is rightly solved,” it noted.

It is not fair that the pandemic, which is out of anyone’s control, has resulted in the government’s lack of responsibility of a situation which could have been avoided, it said.

As a course of action against the government’s shortcomings, the MUT has encouraged all educators working in state schools and church schools to stop taking attendance of students, stop ticking Learning Outcomes (LOs) and stop conducting Committee on Publication Ethics (CoPE) sessions.