(ANSA) - ROME, NOVEMBER 30 - The epidemic curve is decreasing throughout Italy and the easing, albeit slight, of the containment measures brings to the surface the theme, in reality never dormant, of returning to school.
"At the moment no decision has been taken, there is an ongoing discussion. Very gradually I would like the upper schools to be reopened as well. If the measures are relaxed, the school must also be part of it, it cannot be excluded", he says decisively tonight. Minister of Education Lucia Azzolina.
In reality, the hypothesis of a return to the benches in early December, advocated by the minister, seems to fade: by accepting the requests of the regional presidents, the executive would be more inclined to reopen the classrooms from January 7, after the holidays are over.
But Minister Azzolinas stresses that there is talk of reopening "gradually" and that "transport does not affect the reopening in December or January".
"Among other things - he points out - the transport problem does not concern elementary or middle schools. It is true that it concerns high schools, but not uniformly throughout Italy": the work must be done "in large cities, here we must intervene further".
To give her a hand is the Minister for Equal Opportunities and the Family Elena Bonetti: "I expect a plan of organization of local transport and dedicated health services for the school that allows to arrive from the first days of December a form of teaching at least integrated for schools that are now in 100% dad ".
In short, the minister reiterates, once again, that the problem is not the school but what revolves around it, that is, too crowded transport and too few dedicated health services.
"School is a priority and the return to teaching in the presence of an educational urgency for our children - adds Bonetti - There is no time to waste, every day of school in the presence is a day earned for the future of our children and is worth all the our work and our commitment to the government ".
Realistic, the president of the NPC (National Association of Presidia) Antonello Giannelli: "It seems unlikely to me that we will be able to return to an in-person teaching before Christmas. In fact, the problems connected with presence do not affect all territories in the same way, like public transport. But if we want to take a univocal decision will be difficult, I repeat, before Christmas ".
"Of course we hope that he will return to the school in attendance as soon as possible, but only if the conditions we have been talking about for a long time are met - adds Giannelli - the reorganization of public transport and that of territorial health services as well as the availability of substitutes, because in schools about a quarter of the staff it is not made up of tenured teachers. There is a difficulty this year in finding substitutes also because people are less willing to move in the presence of the pandemic. This means that in many schools it is not possible to guarantee full hours. it is another problem, it is necessary to be able to guarantee the substitutes of the teachers when they are placed in quarantine ".
Meanwhile in Piedmont, now the orange zone, the parents of Turin students who are still forced to attend lessons at a distance are preparing to protest against the decision of the Region to continue with the dad also for second and third grade students despite the easing of the measures.
"Are the retail shops reopening and the kids do not come back? We ask that the Piedmont Region immediately remove this restriction", is the appeal launched by the parents of the students, who threaten to bombard Governor Cirio with e-mails.
On change.org, a petition for inpresence lessons is gathering thousands of subscribers.
Also the school director of the comprehensive Institute 'Tommaseo' Lorenza Patriarca, who is also a municipal councilor of the Democratic Party, has written to the president of the Region.
"I ask you to explain to my 312 second and third graders in Dad why they should continue to comply with the law and run the lessons remotely, instead of going all the way down the street following the example of Anita and Lisa protesting to give priority to school. As an educator I ask her to clarify the reasons for her choice ", she writes.
In the meantime, as a result of the chromatic downgrading of some regions, 3,320,958 pupils will remain with distance learning from tomorrow, while 719,000 will return to class.
(HANDLE).
