The Government, from the Chief Minister down have always had, and continue to have nothing but respect for teaching professionals.   

The amount of engagement with teachers over recent years is unprecedented, and demonstrates this in real terms. The engagement has included monthly meetings involving the Minister for Education and weekly meetings of the Social partnership. The GSD never did anything like that when Keith Azopardi or Edwin Reyes were in Government.

The Chief Minister himself and his team spent a whole day in discussion last year covering a wide range of issues, many of which have been tackled.  That is not counting the intensity of  work on the new Education initiatives including the new schools.   

The GSD never did any of that. The GSD actually entirely ignored teachers and their needs, in terms of pay, responsibility allowances (TLRs), buildings and other facilities, and much more.    

That shows the GSD's utter disrespect for the interests and needs of teachers.  Now they just try to clamber onto the shoulders of teachers, hijack their negotiation and pontificate. The GSD never did anything for teachers, never involved them in anything, and they never would in the future either. The state of the schools that we inherited from the GSD is the real story of their lack of commitment to education and teachers.

In sharp contrast, the Government is now engaged in dealing with all outstanding claims, many already resolved recently, and continues to work on the pay review, even though we do not simply accept the union’s claim as the GSD now pretends it would do.

Minister for Education John Cortes said, “The public need to know just how closely we have been working with the teachers’ union, and with teachers as a whole over the past year and a half in particular.  And how much progress has been made.  We have no argument with them.  We have successfully negotiated many matters in recent months and we are currently negotiating a pay claim. I hope we can continue to do so in a spirit of co-operation and without the political opportunistic grandstanding of other parties. But the Union has to address the fact that the demonstration they led yesterday included the shouting of insults in a manner that was not befitting for the teaching profession, as professional role models, to be associated with.”

The Chief Minister, the Hon Fabian Picardo QC MP, said: "I am not surprised to see Keith Azopardi has got out his vote-buying cheque book.  He is clearly nervous that buying votes is the only thing that might keep the GSD represented in our Parliament. The GSD did nothing for teachers when they were in Government. Now, as soon as they see a demonstration, they forget about prudence in public finance, they forget about their complaints about the grown of public expenditure and they PRETEND that they would be paying out the teachers’ claims if they were in Government.  The GSD have no shame.  The teachers may not yet be happy with the way we have settled their claim, but they are too clever to put any credibility by the statements from the GSD.  I will continue my work in properly and objectively assessing the potential for a counter offer to be made to the teachers as soon as possible. Doing that work and refusing to just accept a claim and write a cheque for the amount claimed is not 'arrogance', it is proper prudence and the right approach and mis-characterising my actions will not dissuade me from continuing to act in the best interests of all tax payers, teachers included.   I will reply to the union's letter early next week.  And I will not tire of illustrating to people that the GSD have not hesitated to politicise the issue for their own benefit, without worrying about the fact that this would add a layer of unnecessary complexity to the matter as a whole and the negative effect this could have on teachers.  Mr Clinton and Mr Azopardi need to get off the shoulders of teachers and allow the Government and the teachers’ Union to negotiate without making matters more difficult with their typically short-sighted party political approach.

"Finally, I agree with the union that there is no need for the otherwise excellent relationship to deteriorate further and as I said to teachers in my Bulletin earlier in the week, I shall look forward to continuing to work with them in providing the best education in Europe to our children, both in terms of the infrastructure of our schools and the terms, conditions and remuneration of our teaching professionals."