"The national contract of the school world has never been questioned, I have never talked about different fees between North and South; I have only reported a problem raised by some regions regarding the different cost of living in the different Italian cities. Together with trade unions and Regions will also discuss this aspect, to seek adequate solutions in favor of teachers and school staff".
This was specified by Giuseppe Valditara, Minister of Education and Merit, responding to the accusations of the political and trade union world on the differentiated salaries for profs.
The secretary of the CGIL Maurizio Landini attacked the proposal of the minister of education and merit Giuseppe Valditara to differentiate salaries by region, even with private funding.
"I think returning to a differentiation of salary cages as there was fifty years ago is madness, our country is already quite divided, it doesn't need to increase divisions," said Landini.
"I think the minister, rather than making statements that take us back fifty years, should ask himself the question of how to deal with the situation".
Public schools need new forms of funding, also to cover the salaries of teachers who could undergo regional differentiation.
And to find them, it could be open to private funding, is the thesis of the Minister of Education and Merit
Giuseppe Valditara
, who spoke to the dialogue platform promoted by PwC and the Gedi group "Italy 2023: people, work, business" in a speech taken from La Repubblica.
The yes of the principals.
Increasing the salaries of school staff living in the north "is a fairly sensible measure":
Mario Rusconi,
head
of the principals of the Rome PNA, told
ANSA, echoing the words of Minister Valditara .
As for the entry of private individuals into schools, "this already happens, especially in high schools and professional techniques. We need to see the conditions in which the private sector enters, but schools need funds, the resources available to local authorities are not many And the schools should have the statute of foundations to have speed in carrying out the work and savings in costs".
We need to "find new ways - explains Valditara -, even experimental ones, of synergy between the production system, civil society and the school, to finance education, in addition to the government's effort", he explained.
To avoid the risk of finding many companies willing to finance institutions only in some territories, creating incurable disparities for public schools, according to the minister, the solution is "the creation of a centralized and ministerial equalization fund which allows us, with the funds attracted for a high school in Brescia, to also finance one in Palermo or a professional institute in Caserta".
According to Valditara "we must have the courage to remove education and research from the constraints of Maastricht".
Furthermore, "those who live and work in a region of
Teachers "must be in sufficient numbers, have adequate preparation and guarantee educational continuity. We will launch an important recruitment - he underlines -. We have already met with the trade unions. It is a matter of weeks".
In the future of education, according to Valditara, there is also room for artificial intelligence, of which "we must not be afraid, it is enough to govern it, otherwise it becomes a risk. However, teachers - he reassures us - will not be replaced by robots".
According to
Rusconi
, an experiment could be started with the 'school-foundation' for a three-year period.
Returning to the theme of the high cost of living in the north, "many teachers - says the head teacher - find work in the regions but do not accept it because the cost of living is too high; it is a measure that should also be extended to other employees. It is a The problem is the fact that Italy has an economy with very different living costs, plus those who work in the north have the costs associated with commuting, because at least twice a month they go to visit their families in the south. a specific union negotiation would be needed", concludes Rusconi.
THE REACTIONS OF THE PARTIES
"Valditara throws off the mask and describes to those who still have some doubts the model that this government wants to create:
the school of inequalities - so the group leaders of the 5 Star Movement in the Education Committee in the Senate and in the Chamber Luca Pirondini and Anna Laura Orrico -
.
Guaranteeing higher salaries in the North because the cost of living is higher has nothing to do with merit, nor does it take into account the enormous efforts that many teachers put in place in disadvantaged contexts, where the school represents the main democratic garrison.
As for opening the doors to private money through sponsorships, we are aware of the chronic lack of resources, but this cannot lead to solutions that risk increasing the gap not only between North and South, but also between the center and the periphery and between large and small towns.
Valditara's plan worries us: his plan is exactly what we challenged him in Parliament and his words are proving us right.
We will see the concrete moves he will put in place but one thing is certain:
The opposition of the Democratic Party lasts
.
"Unacceptable statements by Minister Valditara. It seems to me that they go hand in hand with the proposals on Calderoli's autonomy. A right wing that wants to divide the country and increase inequalities. Thus we risk the desertification of areas where we should go back to investing in school".
This was stated by
Elly Schlein
, member of the Democratic Party, on the show "L'aria che tira" broadcast on La7.
"Why doesn't the Minister of Education and Merit, Giuseppe Valditara, care about the thousands of male and female students who drop out of school every year in Italy? What is he doing about this? In Italy, early school leaving is 12.7%, the third highest in the EU", asks
Nicola Zongaretti
.
"Why doesn't the minister ask himself about the enormous inequalities that exist in the incidence of this great Italian criticality? More than 1 in 5 young people who have parents who do not work or carry out unskilled work in Italy has dropped out of school, with very strong territorial differences We talk a lot about merit, but girls and boys don't run away from school because they are lazy or stupid. Very often they are forced to leave school and give up the most important possibility of emancipating themselves due to their social conditions. We are the ones who ask for respect for right of the merits sanctioned by article 34".
"Minister Valditara wants to parameterize teachers' salaries according to the cost of living. Another way to divide Italy, impoverish the South, drain teachers towards the richest areas of the country".
This was stated by the deputy of the Pd
Enzo Amendola
.
"But what is the vision of the Meloni government? Minister Valditara's proposal to differentiate teachers' salaries by territory clashes with the executive's ideas on social security, health and salaries! A corollary of Calderoli which gives the final blow to the South and to the peripheral areas of the national territory", the comment of the senator of the Democratic Party
Beatrice Lorenzin
.
"First Calderoli with the Spacca Italia, then Nordio with the sticks to the judiciary, now Valditara with differentiated salaries and the entry of private individuals into public schools, which will certify its destruction. We are not dealing with Carnival jokes but with a drawing increasingly dangerous than the right in government, to which perhaps the time has come for the opposition to begin to give a strong, decisive and unified response."
This was stated
by the national secretary of the Italian Left
Nicola Fratoianni
, parliamentarian of the Green Left Alliance.
THE POSITIONS OF THE TRADE UNIONS
A rejection also comes from the Flc CGIL
.
"The idea of introducing differentiated wages by Region based on the cost of living is totally bizarre, it takes us back 50 years, to wage cages; if anything, there is a problem that concerns all school personnel: the minister should finance the collective agreement which now sees zero resources. The conjunction between the entry of private individuals and the disarticulation of the contractual system is the destruction of public schools, it is the worst thing that can be done ".
We are ready to implement any mobilization if this is confirmed as a proposal," Flc CGIL secretary Francesco Sinopoli told ANSA.
"We hope that the recent statements by the Minister of Education GIuseppe Valditara do not actually correspond to the school programs that he intends to implement. Otherwise it would mean radically calling into question the structure of the national collective agreement, accentuating the social inequality which, for equal work, leads to receive different salaries based on the place where one's business is carried out. For this reason, we will ask the minister for formal clarifications on the matter".
Giuseppe D ' April says it,
Uil School
secretary .
"Any idea of differentiating teachers' salaries according to the region in which they teach is unacceptable and contrary to article 36 of the Constitution, according to which the worker has the right to a remuneration proportionate to the quantity and quality of his work. Paying differently for the work performance itself, therefore, would be unconstitutional".
So Rino Di Meglio, national coordinator of the
Guild of Teachers
, comments on the declarations of Minister Valditara reported by the press.
"If equalization measures are to be implemented - continues Di Meglio - we must instead think of removing the obstacles that prevent a teacher from leading a dignified life, for the same salary, even in large urban areas, which are notoriously more expensive than those of the small provinces. It would therefore be necessary to create conditions to favor those teachers who are forced to move from their residence to very expensive metropolitan areas for work. One could therefore think of interventions above all on housing and transport, but not on salaries. it is a delicate issue on which - concludes the national coordinator of the Guild - we are available to discuss with the minister".