Because the school calendar must be rethought, the petition that has already exceeded 72 thousand signatures

While in Italy every summer explodes the problem of what to make children once the school is closed – with increasingly expensive and out of reach summer centers for many families – a petition continues to collect consensus. Is called We restore the calendarwas launched in 2023 by Weworld and Mammadimerda, and exceeded 72 thousand signatures. The message is clear: It is necessary to rethink the school calendar to make it closer to the reality of today’s families.

“We can’t afford that Summer becomes an accelerator of social injustices»Under Valentina Rizzi, coordinator of Weworld’s domestic programs. «For many families, The closure of the school means being without tools, without spaces, without help; For many boys and girls it means the absence of opportunities for growth, experiences and relationships. We want every little girl, child, girl and boy to live summer as a time full of relationships, discoveries and care, not as a void to cross alone ».

The starting figure is simple: The Italian summer break lasts on average 14 weeks, the longest in Europe after Türkiye, Lithuania and Latvia. This dilated time ends up expanding the gap between those who can afford summer educational activities and those who do not, and weighs in an disproportionate way to those who take care of the children, often mothers.

The current school calendar still responds to the cycle of wheat, “which was calibrated on a world that no longer exists”says Francesca Fiore, co -founder of Mammadimerda together with Sarah Malnerich. «It was designed for an agricultural company, with families where the woman did not work. Now the families are sun, often monogenitorial, where mothers work and there is no network. And instead It is taken for granted that this family network still exists which can make up for the closure of the school. But that’s no longer like that». So talking about school calendar becomes “a political, cultural and social question. It means talking about equity, mental load, health, and above all by right to time ».

The petition We restore the calendar He does not ask for an increase in school days, but their different distribution. The idea is to keep the current 200 days, but spread more balanced during the yearwith the possibility of keeping schools open even in June and July. In those months, the activities would not be didactic but laboratory, sports and cultural, organized by third sector entities within the school spaces. All on a voluntary basis.

Another key point: compulsory full time from 3 to 14 years in all Italian schoolsleaving freedom to families to choose between part time or full time, without being penalized by a uneven school geography.

It is not just about school. The petition is part of a wider vision that asks for a structural reform of conciliation: From the revision of school hours to the reform of maternity leave, paternity and parental leave. “We can no longer act in watertight compartments,” reads the text, “we must adopt synergistic tools that promote, at the same time, the inclusion of girls, boys and young people, the female empowerment and the needs of today’s families”.