With the reopening of St Albert the Great College following the recent controversy surrounding former head Mario Mallia, an email sent to the Secretariat for Catholic Education by the MUT President revealed what went down during the first day of school.

According to sources, the situation ‘is other than normal and very different from the impression that was provided publicly by the rector.’ 

Sources revealed various issues which had to be addressed by not just the MUT members themselves but assistant heads, teachers, LSEs and other personnel. 

‘It is thanks to their efforts and in the best interest of their students that the school could function.’ Among the issues is the lack of considerable number of personnel. 

New faces are reportedly seen roaming around, with no information to personnel as to whether they underwent a selection process or were handpicked to work at the school. ‘The MUT questions whether these were engaged through the normal selection process, whether there is approval for their post, and whether they passed all checks and balances required for such posts.’ 

The school was also using the draft secondary timetable which was prepared and provided by previous head Mr Mario Mallia and assistant heads back in July. Thus, the MUT report that claims that members refrained from passing data to the school is unfounded and does not justify the delayed opening. 

‘The timetable is clearly not finalised, with problems in room allocations and student allocations. There were problems with replacements with classes unsupervised whilst the supervision roster was unavailable and had to be done by our members.’ 

Outings logistics and transport arrangements had to also be done by MUT, with teachers getting excessive loads and schemes in breach of agreements. LSEs also were assigned to students without respect to their personal statements. 

The situation is reportedly just as bad in the primary school, where timetables for specialised subjects were unavailable and had to be done by other teachers. Supervisions were unavailable and had to be worked out by LSEs and teachers. Furthermore, all programmes running for students in the past years have been scrapped. 

The MUT stated that had they not stepped up to assist and address serious shortcomings, the students would have suffered. 

#MaltaDaily