The members of the school board of the Iqbal Masih state comprehensive school in Pioltello, in the Milan area, defend the decision taken yesterday to confirm the closure on April 10th, the day of the end of Ramadan holiday, and ask to respect it and to be able to "return to live the school with peace of mind".
Words that arrive together with the response of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella to the letter of the vice-principal Maria Rendani, who had addressed him inviting him to visit the school: "I received and read your letter carefully and, in thanking you", underlines the head of the State, "I would like to tell you that I greatly appreciated it, just as - beyond the single episode, which in reality is of modest importance - I appreciate the work that the teaching staff and the institute bodies carry out in fulfilling a precious and particularly challenging."
However, the controversy does not subside and indeed reaches Parliament where FdI has announced a question to the Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara to find out what it intends to do now.
In the inspection visit of March 18, the school board explained in a long note, some irregularities were found in the resolution on the school calendar, namely the fact that there were "four days of suspension of lessons compared to the maximum of three days" that could be decided by the school, that the Region's resolution does not provide for the possibility of bringing forward the start of lessons to compensate (which they had chosen to do in Pioltello) and furthermore "the absence of express didactic motivations in the resolution of the Institute Council for the days of suspension".
Hence the decision yesterday to 'give up' two of the planned holiday days (Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th April), confirming instead the closure on the 10th for Eid al Fitr and on Friday 26th April, the day after Liberation Day.
Given choices considering the high rate of absences over the two days "which compromises the effective carrying out of the planned teaching and educational activities, also in coherence with the educational choices".
It was a decision "born spontaneously within us, on the basis of reasons that we believe are consistent with the right to education and instruction, with the Italian Constitution and which originates from the consideration made by the Teaching Body" explained by the Council of the institute announcing that on May 21st for the World Day of Cultural Diversity the school will organize a dialogue "on the themes of inclusion, interaction between cultures and comparison between religions".
However, for the president of Lombardy Attilio Fontana, closing for the end of Ramadan is an "absolutely out of place" choice.
"It doesn't mean that to respect" religious holidays "you have to close a school. They can also be respected in another way it seems to me" he observed.
It is a "scandalous choice" of "reverse integration" according to Northern League MEP Silvia Sardone, who was the first to raise the controversy while FdI parliamentarian Riccardo De Corato spoke of "something far-fetched" when announcing the question in Valditara.
"Our ability to achieve unity in diversity - the Institute Council concluded, quoting Mahatma Gandhi - will be the beauty and test of our civilization".
In Pioltello the school will close for the end of Ramadan
A closure decided to avoid empty classrooms and hours spent without carrying out the program, given a school year that started a day early.
It is with the sole "educational and non-religious choice" that the school board of the Iqbal Masih of Pioltello, in the Milan area, voted again unanimously to close it on the occasion of the celebration for the end of Ramadan, on April 10th.
The choice therefore fell on the revision of the resolution for the suspension of lessons, declared irregular by the regional school office last week.
The change concerned the underlining of the sole didactic motivation underlying the decision, linked to the numerous foreseeable absences, defined as incomplete in the first draft by the Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara himself.
Around 7pm today, the teaching council of the comprehensive institute which welcomes around 1300 students, including elementary and middle school, voted first, followed by the approval of the institute council.
The first resolution to be contested at the highest levels was voted on in May 2023. When the news became public following the declaration of the Northern League MEP Silvia Sardone, the case became the subject of heated political exchanges.
The same happened among the parents of the students who attend Masih, some absolutely agree with the suspension of lessons, others decidedly against, without this being linked to their respective religious faith.
Even the three parish priests of Pioltello, two days ago, in a letter defined the choice of school as "legitimate and consistent with the characteristics of the local reality".
However, the inspectors sent by the ministry had found technical defects in the resolution, including the absence of an educational motivation, which would have justified its validity.
The head teacher Alessandro Fanfoni, who had been subjected to insults and threats for a week, was then asked to "evaluate the non-application of the resolution and the possibility of its annulment".
Today the school board has therefore filled those "gaps", effectively responding to the sender's complaints.
Outside the Institute, representatives of the Flc, CGIL and Milan Chamber of Labor unions gathered in support of the teachers and the council.
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