Ststudents, often backed by parents, who bully their teachers. Other professors who decide not to admit a girl with five failings to maturity and are disavowed by the TAR. Meanwhile, the usual ballet of substitutes begins again: out of 900,000 teachers, there are 250,000 temporary workers. The school struggles, the teachers even more: salaries remain low, there is no mention of a career, authority is at a minimum. The link between school, families and territory has frayed. What can be done to restore value to the profession and make it attractive?
The school crisis
It wasn’t always like this. After the Second World War “teachers were among the protagonists of the reconstruction” recalls Ivana Barbacci, national secretary of the Cisl School. In 1951, in Italy, 13 percent of the population was illiterate, in 2001 the percentage had dropped to 1.5.
«Teaching was a source of pride, until the 1980s a lot was invested in research. With the 1997 law on school autonomy, there was a blackout. Schools fragmented and central government no longer supported them, neither economically nor structurally. Autonomy has been a great alibi for abandoning school to itself. Then linear cuts began: from 2008 to 2018 teachers fell by 150,000 unitsand again in those 10 years we had no contract renewals.
The Good School di Matteo Renzi has invested badly, accentuating the differences between solid and fragile realities ». A historical excursus that explains today’s troubles, and the crisis of the profession: «The result of this process is that there hasn’t been any investment in teacher training, as instead there had been, massively, when primary school he had gone from the single master to the modules» continues the union leader. «Today funding comes – from European funds or from private individuals – for specific projects, unrelated to each other: education in legality, the environment, food, etc… However, the fundamentals are missing. By now the idea has passed that school, like health care, must exist regardless ».
Chairs in the North, teachers in the South
A bitter analysis that Ivana Barbacci concludes thus: «The result? A substantial inadequacy. What do we offer young people? To work for 1,300 euros a month with a heavy load of responsibility and the prospect of remaining precarious for who knows how long?». The ministry has just authorized 51,000 hires, but it is already known that many professorships will not be assigned: the posts are in the North, the candidates in the South, finding a mathematics or physics professor is a chimera.
According to Andrea Gavosto, director of the Agnelli Foundation, making the teaching profession more attractive is not just about money, «even if in the immediate future, the first thing to do would be incentives for those who go to teach scientific subjects or to work in fragile schools. But strong status and social recognition are needed to attract talented young people. A selection must be made in order to hire the best young people who must be trained, before and during their years of service. It is necessary to overcome the criterion of seniority as the only way to improve salary. Trentino had designed an excellent career reform but it vanished into thin air. The tutor set up with the newly signed category contract, who should deal with guidance, is a first step. Only if you put all these aspects together can you restore the centrality of teaching».
In the contract only the hours of lessons
Salaries are low, no doubt. And they remain so even if the new contract has guaranteed an average increase of 124 euros per month. Same for everyone, as always. According to a study just released by N26 Online Bank, Italian teachers with their 26,000 euros a year are in 31st place out of 50 countries by average salary. The first on the list in the European Union, the Danes, earn double. Behind Italy, in Europe, only Portugal and Greece.
“We at the CISL are willing to negotiate on the creation of middle management figures, intermediate between managers and teachers, but first we need to realign basic salaries,” Barbacci argues. So far, the Italian “little money for little effort” model has resisted. But is it still sustainable? “Italy is the only country that contracts only the hours of lessons in the classroom, which are 18 per week,” explains Carlo Cappa, professor of the history of pedagogy at the Tor Vergata University in Rome. «The other European contracts are around 30-35 per week but they include everything. In this way, however, ample room is left for discretion». He does not agree with Ivana Barbacci’s “little commitment”: «In the meantime, 80 hours must be added to the 18 hours, in the school yearof functional teaching activities. Then there are other hours that vary due to the organizational activities or the training offer. Putting everything in the contract would have a different impact, depending on the institutions ». The school gives, but not to everyone in the same way. And often not to those who need it most.
The core of training and the Pnrr
Let’s take a historical topic of discussion, the school calendar and the three months of summer holidays. The former minister Patrizio Bianchi had presented a plan for schools open in the summer, which despite the lukewarm reception had brought some excellent projects. Then it was never talked about again. The reality is that the losers for that closing quarter are the weakest, those who do not go to summer camps and take refuge in cell phones: «Together with Save the Children we have a summer program for children at risk of being left behind, Educational Archipelago» says Andrea Gavosto. «It has been seen that the drop in learning, i.e. ithe summer learning loss is considerable». Barbacci is available: «We have 210 days of effective schooling, we are in line with other countries. Bianchi’s path can be retraced: resources, alliances with the territory and the third sector are needed. We are not perched. But the dignity of teachers must be defended.
In this analysis of the unresolved knots, the most tangled one today concerns training. While the degree course in Primary Education Sciences exists for primary school, there was a vacuum for the secondary school for six years. But now there is a challenge to overcome, and that of the Pnrr. “There are funds specifically for teacher training,” explains Professor Cappa. «Law 79/22 established the features of the new one-year course (60 credits, i.e. university training credits) on educational sciences, disciplinary teaching and internship, to be carried out in parallel or after the master’s degree.
The implementing decree, which should have been published in July 2022 to define the details, has however only now been signed. Unfortunately, the premises are badsince legislation has already been passed to free the process of rigor and content: 50 percent can be done online and there are numerous facilitations for some categories. Furthermore, the threshold for permitted absences will probably be set at 40 per cent. The risk is that the opportunity is lost. And yet, it would be in the country’s vital interest to have teachers able to face the educational challenges of today and tomorrow”.
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