Schools open in the summer: the proposal, which always causes discussion, by the Minister of Education Valditara

The theme schools open in summer is always the bearer of proposals that lead to controversy. The latest proposal, with related controversy, comes from the Minister of Education Joseph Vallettara in an interview with the newspaper The print: keep schools open even in summeron a voluntary basis, for “working families who request it, because yes, the problem exists and it is certainly not a secondary problem”.

«We are increasing school time both with tutors and with Agenda Sud. And we are putting money into it. We are already working to meet families who rightly ask for help». the minister said. The first tranche would allow the opening of 2,800 schools with 100 million euros already allocated. “To that money we added more, taking it from funds against early school leaving, and so we started projects in 768 other institutions”.

For the minister, the school “must be built to measure for the student, like a suit tailored to him. The boys must be accompanied by specific figures, helped if they have weaknesses and stimulated in their strengths ». The school, also open in the summer, would be used for recovery and strengthening.

The problem is concentrated especially in elementary and middle school, those in which children and teenagers cannot be left alone and working parents, in the absence of grandparents or other solutions, have to resort to summer camps, this year more expensive for families, or babysitting services.

For some time, especially families, have been complaining about the long summer break of Italian schools: 3 whole months between June and September. This break, due to the heat of the summer season, no longer coincides with the real conditions and possibilities of families. There are no more long holidays with non-working mothers, there are no more families with always an adult available to manage the children.

The possible solutions are varied. A request is that of a different school calendar, with more breaks throughout the year and a shorter one in the summer. Another is to have school facilities open for summer programs for juniors.

A no has already arrived at the solution proposed by the minister. “You can’t go ahead with commercials like the government does,” he said Maurizio Landini, secretary of the CGIL, in front of the Fiom metalworkers in Collebeato, in the Brescia area. “Did Valditara wake up this morning? The government is going ahead putting the flags up, but is not thinking about increasing the number of teachers, making investments in school construction and nursery schools. We are the country with the highest school dropout rate, with the lowest number of graduates and diplomas: these are the themes. We have less full-time than other countries and also older schools for which the necessary renovation investments are not made. We still have teachers who continue to be precarious». Always The print reports the position of the national secretary of the CGIL Scuola Gianna Fracassi: «I hope this is not a way of saying that the teachers take too many holidays. The minister confuses after school with summer camps.