The key points
- The novelties of the decree
- Appeal of the principals, “unmanageable situation”
- Cisl: return to presence is incoherent narration
- CGIL: doubts about school management
In the midst of the expansion of the infections, the return to the banks is not without unknowns. The new guiding criteria established by the Government to manage the restart phase have been developed to guarantee lessons “in presence and safety”. But of the risk of an “unmanageable situation” speak the principals, signatories of an appeal to be granted two weeks of distance learning. As well as uncertainty in the parents called to extricate themselves in the framework of the protocols that provide different paths according to the various cases.
The novelties of the decree
In kindergarten, teachers must wear Ffp2 masks, as well as in primary and secondary classes where there are pupils who do not have a mask because they are exempt for specific reasons. The latest decree then introduces new rules for the management of quarantines: the maternal, in the presence of a positive in the classroom, is suspended from activities for 10 days while in the elementary school, with only one case, surveillance is applied, which provides for a swab to the first and fifth day from the discovery of the case, and with two you go into dad for 10 days. For medium and high school students, on the other hand, the standard provides for three different steps: with a positive case, one continues to go to school in person and applies self-monitoring and the obligation of Ffp2 masks; with two cases, those who are vaccinated with the booster or cured for less than 4 months remain in the classroom, those who are not vaccinated and vaccinated and cured for more than 120 days go to dad; with 3 positives, the whole class stays at home and follows the lessons remotely for a maximum of 10 days.
Appeal of the principals, “unmanageable situation”
“A planned and provisional suspension of face-to-face lessons (with the activation of remote lessons) for two weeks is certainly preferable to an unmanageable situation that will certainly cause fragmentation, interruption of lessons and poor training effectiveness”. This is what we read in an appeal addressed to the Prime Minister Mario Draghi, to the Minister of Education Patrizio Bianchi and to the presidents of the Regions promoted by about twenty principals and which has already reached over 1,500 adhesions of school leaders from all over Italy. The appeal reminds us that “for two years we have been working tirelessly to guarantee a school service severely tested by the pandemic” but “a few days before the start of classes after the Christmas break, during which we never stopped, we are witnessing with concern increasing with the escalation of absences “. In fact, there is talk of “very high numbers, never seen before” and therefore “we will not know, without staff, how to welcome and supervise children and young people” and “we will find it impossible to open small buildings and guarantee safety and surveillance. “. Unlike the previous waves, “even before the Christmas suspension we witnessed a high incidence of infections within the classes (pupils and teachers, even if vaccinated)”, continue the school administrators according to which “it is an epochal situation , never experienced before, risky and already predictable today. It is not possible not to take them into account ».
Cisl: return to presence is incoherent narration
For their part, the trade unions also express reservations. “School leaders are collecting quarantine certifications from staff and families. After the decision of the Council of Ministers, all the actions that should guarantee a return in attendance have taken place but it is only a virtual narrative, unpleasant and incoherent. In thousands of scholastic institutions there are high risks of recovery in fits and starts, of teaching activities for a few hours or just for a few classes », says the secretary of the CISL Scuola Maddalena Gissi. “Choosing to open schools for an action that risks remaining on paper without reflecting on the side effects and inadequate interventions that no one has worried about in the meantime, has disappointed the many who expected decisions of common sense rather than institutional aesthetics . In any case, the executives will activate the Dad out of necessity, as foreseen in the safety protocol in order to eliminate contagion opportunities; it is once again a way to circumvent responsibilities at the government level, downloading the decisions on who lives the problems and must solve them. We look forward to an urgent call from the ministry; we would not want to read on the umpteenth circular how the rules are interpreted ”, concludes the union leader.
CGIL: doubts about school management
Even according to the deputy secretary general of the CGIL Gianna Fracassi and the general secretary of the Flc CGIL Francesco Sinopoli “there are still many doubts about the real effectiveness of the Government’s measures in contrasting the Covid 19 pandemic in terms of school management. We had already said it last summer: it would have been fundamental not to be caught unprepared by new variants and therefore not to eliminate precautionary measures starting from the distancing and splitting of classes “. In particular, “from the official press releases of the Government we note that the procedures indicated are based on the timeliness and effectiveness of the tracing that, in this difficult moment, the Local Health Authorities are no longer able to ensure”. For Fracassi and Sinopoli «the worsening of this situation risks making ineffective the surveillance with testing in primary school, among other things already foreseen since last summer and never implemented. For secondary school, self-monitoring of up to two positive cases with the differentiation of treatment between vaccinated and unvaccinated pupils, in addition to being unacceptable, is not even feasible as schools do not have data relating to vaccinated pupils and it would make teaching management even more complex ». Furthermore, “the choice that differentiates the possible access to remote digital teaching based on the number of infected people is not understood”.