(ANSA) – Rome, June 17 – Premier Matteo Renzi said Wednesday that his government’s plans to invest billions of euros in Italian schools and give permanent jobs to around 100,000 teachers currently employed on temporary contracts is at risk if his Good School reform package gets bogged down in parliament. “Either the package is a disaster, as those who protest against it say.
Or, as we believe, it can be improved but is the first reform in decades that puts money into schools and gives educational continuity,” Renzi said on his Facebook page after thousands of amendments were presented to the bill in the Senate this week. “We’ll debate and make amendments, but them we’ll vote (on it.
Otherwise, the investments will go,” he warned. Consumers group Codacons accused Renzi of “unacceptable blackmail” and playing politics with the education system. “(Renzi’s actions) trample on the rights of temporary workers and humiliates teachers already humiliated by years of insecurity,” said Codacons President Carlo Rienzi.
Renzi sounded a similar alarm Tuesday night in a television broadcast on the popular RAI program Porta a Porta, warning that his school reforms have been delayed so much that they won’t be in place in time for the next school year in September. He acknowledged controversy over the reforms and promised that a kind of public debate would be held “in early July” that would let everyone express their opinions. From families to unions, all will have their say at the one-day event, Renzi said, adding he would then decide what to do with their input. He gave no other details. In his Facebook message, he defended his schools reforms, saying that his government wants to make history with investments that he called “strategic”. “Enough with cuts to schools, finally we will invest,” he said. “It is the first measure after decades that puts money on school and restores educational continuity to our children,” he said. “After years of cuts, there is finally someone who invests on schools – not in words, not in conferences”. Teacher unions have staged two nationwide strikes against the reform. They are mainly unhappy with three parts of the Good School reform: head teachers getting special new powers to select staff; tenure being removed with the prospect of being moved far from one’s post; and students and families getting to rate teachers’ performance.

Sezioni:
• Rassegna Stampa

Aree Tematiche:
• SCUOLA