"There is no need to be afraid of school downsizing because we are not closing any schools."
Thus the Minister of Education and Merit, Giuseppe Valditara, at ANSA shortly before entering the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari for the closing of the 'Future School' event, tries to extinguish the controversy over the rebalancing plan launched by the government for schools.
"Someone said that the children will have to move, but this is absolutely false - clarified the government representative - The schools remain where they are, it is a legal question of institutional mergers. But we are simply going to eliminate the regencies. This means that today a school It didn't have its own principal, but it had a principal who moved from one school to another."
"We - the minister specified - are doing something more: in the merged schools we are installing a deputy principal who will be a stable presence. The service is destined to improve, not worsen. Let us not forget that today we need two budgets, one for the school with ownership and the other board of directors, but also two union negotiations, two advertisements of documents. Now there will be only one because the school will be unitary from a legal point of view. And as far as the structure is concerned, each location - he reiterated - will remain where it is".
Possibility of exemptions?
"This law, compared to the previous one, leaves autonomy to the regions and therefore - explained Valditara - there can be autonomy even with a school of fifty students which will perhaps be recovered in a city with easier connections. Even the mountain school will not be closed: we have provided resources to allow school staff to offload part of the rent and get extra points."
On the problem of school dropouts in Sardinia, the minister recalled the project for the inclusion of 26 million, the Southern Agenda funds for primary schools, plus four high schools, underlining that for the island there is a total package of 502 million, 326 of these for school buildings.
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