School, the Senate approves the new vote on conduct

The issue of voting in conduct is central for the Minister of Education Valditara. Now his bill on the evaluation of behavior at school has had the green light in the Senate with 74 yes, 56 no and no abstentions.

The minister

It will have to pass the Chamber, but for the minister it is already a very positive result. «It represents an important step forward in the construction of a school that empowers children and restores authority to teachers. Unlike those who speak of authoritarian and unnecessarily punitive measures, I support the choice to give the right weight to the conduct of students' academic career.”

In particular, for the head of the Department of Education, any violent action must be stigmatized. «I believe that in the case of acts of bullying it is not only useless but also harmful to keep the child away from school, left to do nothing. I am convinced that engaging in social activities is much more constructive, because the student can analyze and understand the reasons for their inappropriate behavior. Being part of a community entails rights and duties, among which respect for teachers, one's classmates and public goods. It is also important that anyone who has attacked school staff compensates the school for the damage to its reputation that it has contributed to creating. To build a truly democratic society, to fight violence, to restore centrality to the founding values ​​of our Constitution, we must start again from school, every day on the front line in the education of our young people.”

The provision

The main provision concerns voting in conduct. In high school you are not admitted to the following year or to the final exam if you do not have at least a seven in conduct. With a six you have to do a civic education paper. If you get a 5 you fail. The grade for insufficient conduct comes with behaviors that are serious and repeated violations of the Institute Regulations.

Even in middle school there is an evaluation of behavior, expressed in tenths. It will average with the other subjects. It will be considered over the entire school year, rather than just per quarter.

In the case of Suspensionup to two days for serious behavior, it will be possible to carry out recovery through educational activities at school with a final test to be submitted to the board of
class. If it goes beyond two days, solidarity citizenship activities of civic utility will have to be carried out at affiliated facilities.

Fines are also introduced «for crimes committed to the detriment of a school manager or a member of the teaching, educational, administrative, technical or auxiliary staff of the school due to or in the exercise of his office or his functions is always ordered, in addition to the possible
compensation for damages, the payment of a sum from 500 to 10,000 euros as pecuniary compensation in favor of the educational institution to which the offended person belongs”.

Synthetic judgments

They return to primary school «synthetic judgments», not numerical votes, but clearer wording for families. The final grade on the primary school report card will be expressed with the terms: insufficient, sufficient, fair, good and excellent. We therefore go back compared to the 2020 reform which spoke of results by progression: advanced, intermediate, basic.

Reactions

Senator Francesco Verducci, vice-president of the Culture commission, spoke in the Chamber for the Democratic Party. «The tightening of the conduct grade is harmful and regressive, because it is a repressive and punitive idea of ​​the school and, therefore, of society. It is the opposite of the school of inclusion and emancipation that is written in our Constitution.” Also for the Democratic Party, Simona Malpezzi says that the provision «confuses authority and authority: “It doesn't mean being lax or being do-gooders, but it means saying that respect for the rules can be achieved through the ability to build a relationship based on authority. Does this government really believe that one vote is enough to change things?”.