There is a whatsapp group with about 200 teachers called "Algotruffa", they are the historical precarious professors who have not obtained the annual chair despite high scores and several years of teaching behind them.
"All the fault of the algorithm", say the professors who have found themselves in recent days in front of the school office in via Frangipane in Rome to ask for explanations.
What was once called a supervisor, however, does not open to the public due to the covid, the professors complain that no one answers their emails or the phone, the only thing allowed is to write their data and the problem on a piece of paper and deliver the leaflet to a custodian who receives it from a tiny opening in the gate protected by a transparent plexiglass.
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"I have been teaching literature in high school for 5 years, so this year I was calm - explains a teacher -, instead I was excluded at the expense of people with lower scores and I don't understand why".
The cases are varied but one thing seems clear: it is the fault of the algorithm.
"There are too many variables that the machine cannot process - says Susanna Rizza, music teacher - whoever has the most scores is penalized. Last I was left without a chair for the benefit of people with lower scores, I appealed and after one year I am still waiting for the hearing at the Tar ".
School precarious chaos: the professors reject the algorithm for substitutes and speak of 'algotruffa'
"The algorithm should cross data to assign the chair - explains Marianna D'Onofri, professor of Literature -, the problem is that many professors who are in these lists worked by the algorithm have passed the various competitions that have been held since March and placed in the role. Therefore they received both the annual and the 'definitive' professorship ".
It is difficult to quantify how many these cases are.
The CGIL Scuola Lazio and Roma explains that they are unable to obtain these numbers from the USR (regional school office).
The numbers are very difficult to cross: in Rome the GPS lists (provincial school rankings) see 8,000 places for each order and grade (Anief data), the entries in the role for Lazio would be 9,459 but only 7,000 have been completed, because for some competitions the rankings have not yet come out.
The count can only be approximate: considering the proportions between the capital and the region, Rome could have had 5,000 entries in the role in the GPS lists out of 8,000 places, how many of these places went to professors who already had a professorship?
"This year I had to take a 10-hour substitute teaching service which means 700 euros a month - says Francesca Carucci, math teacher -; in my school, however, there is a 'complete' chair at 18 hours which is empty and the principal told me her hands are tied. "
The chair has in fact been assigned to a professor who in the meantime has won the competition and has been placed in the role of another school, his chair will be reassigned at the next 'round' of the algorithm.
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"I score 92 - explains another mathematics professor -, it's a very high score. I was not taken anywhere because in the schools I had chosen many of those professors were hired, but I cannot participate in the second call because for the algorithm it is as if I had given up those professorships ".