Time to Defend Italy's Schools

Protect our Schools8th October 2008 During the summer Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini pushed through a new law (decreto legge 137, 1 September 2008) regarding the Italian education system. It seems it is time for more reforms. The main reason for this is to make cuts in education spending. How? By returning to a primary school system abandoned 60 years ago which would effectively lead to the redundancy of more than 70,000 teachers and 44,000 non-teaching school staff throughout the country.

The drastic steps the government intends to take to make the so-called ‘reforms’ will inevitably also have repercussions on secondary and university education in Italy. This is an outline of what is planned:

• Reduction of primary school hours to 24 a week, with just one teacher per class (instead of the current team-teaching) thus making extra school projects, school trips and lab activities practically impossible. 
• Closing down more than 2000 small schools in Italy (those with fewer than 600 pupils), thus increasing travelling time for many school children, with the accompanying costs, fatigue and time involved.
• Increasing  maximum class sizes to 33 pupils
• Getting  rid of more than 44,000 non-teaching school staff, including administrative staff and lab assistants, the latter already insufficient to cover current needs.
• Cutting teaching staff by 87,000 over three years.

All those who care about the Italian Education System and the future of our children and generations to come are invited to take part in the general assembly to be held on 10 October 2008 at 5pm in the Salone of the Palazzo della Provincia, Piazza del Municipio 4, Livorno.

A General Strike is also planned for Friday 17th October 2008.