97% of educators participate in teachers’ strike

The teachers followed a union directive issued following disagreement with the government over their financial package.

MUT president Marco Bonnici said that about 600 out of about 35,000 state school students turned up in schools, but no students turned up in church schools.

Bonnici said the union was open to dialogue, adding “We will wait to see what will happen in the upcoming hours”.

Graham Sansone, executive head of the competing Union of Professional Educators (UPE), has called for transparency from both the government and the MUT.

Teachers and the public needed to know details from the MUT’s negotiations with the government so they would know what they were talking about.

“The success of a strike is not measured by how many teachers or students turn up but by whether an agreement is reached. What happens now?”, Sansone asked.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Robert Abela on Sunday warned that militant industrial action will not get teachers anywhere.

The government had a “strong proposal” on the table, giving “substantial” pay increases to educators, Abela said.

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola expressed her support for the teachers, saying this was “a dark day for education”.

Students missed a day of school because the government slammed the door in the face of teachers, Metsola wrote on Facebook.