Reggio Calabria, a teacher writes to Falcomatà: “Meaningless postponement of school, what will you do in case of voting? Are we at home until November? Please think again.”

Reggio Calabria, a teacher from Reggio writes publicly to Mayor Falcomatà that today he has decided to close schools for the whole of next week, moving the start of classes from September 24 to 28

“Dear Mayor, I just read the news related to his ordinance that closed schools for the next week and I immediately decided to write him a letter hoping that the staff at Strettoweb would correct any typographical errors, as he is particularly affected by a decision that prolongs our agony. We have been at home for 7 months and we are eager to return to work in the classroom, in close contact with the students, and we were ready for the start of the school year scheduled for Thursday 24 before receiving this tile absolutely on hold“This was written by a professor at a high school in Reggio Calabria in an open letter sent to the editorial staff of StrettoWeb.

“Overlooking the particularity of choosing closed schools before they even open – continues the professor – I would like to share some thoughts with you. First of all, I teach in a school that is not a voting center and, like mine, there are also many other schools whose premises will not host voting operations. If what is needed is to sanitize and disinfect the voting rooms, why not limit the possible closure only to polling stations? In this way, many students are penalized who, instead, can start school regularly from the 24th.

I also ask you why in other municipalities and other regions you will regularly return to classes on the 24th, disinfecting and disinfecting the environments on Wednesday 23rd, while in Reggio it is not possible and we have to postpone it even a week. With us it perhaps takes longer to disinfect than in the rest of Italy, where many have already returned to classes since the 14th and for post-election disinfections they will simply stop one day longer than the count?

For her part, I would have appreciated more if she had intervened with the government, made up of authorized members of her own party and who are supporting her every day here in Reggio in her electoral campaign, to avoid setting a date so early in the month for the elections . September, creating all these inconveniences in the school calendar. If we had been called to vote on the first or second weekend of September, not all these problems would have arisen and all the schools in Italy would have started after the elections without any problem. On the other hand, in Italy we love to complicate things.

We have seen how many problems there will be in schools this year: we will have to join distance education when some positive cases occur, as has already happened in some institutes in Italy and other countries. We will have to live with inconvenience, lack of staff, teachers, staff, and even adequate spaces, classrooms, desks, and chairs. But maybe all of this will be solved by postponing the opening for a week? The reality is that you have to live with this difficult situation and the only solution is to start over anyway. As they did in France, where some schools had to close, but the other 60,000 have been open for a month. As they did in all the regions of Italy where the students returned to class as of September 14. How will we do when we can finally return to the classroom.

In this regard, I ask you: if you call us, from Reggio, to vote again for a ballot to decide who will be the next Mayor, as seems obvious based on the political situation in the city, what will you do? Will the start of classes be postponed for another week? Or will we go back to class for four days and then close again for a new sanitation? And will the post-vote cleanup last another week, or will it only be enough one day after the vote? And if after the vote only one day was enough to disinfect the rooms, why can’t the same day after the first round be enough?

I hope you answer my questions and, above all, that you think again: it is still time, at least for institutions that are not polling stations, it is good to go back to school on the 24th. We are already organized with directors, parents , students and we have made enormous sacrifices. to ensure compliance with the school calendar. We are all excited to be able to resume that path of social and educational growth that was abruptly interrupted by the pandemic seven months ago.

With the best wishes

a disappointed teacher“.

Signed letter

Reggio Calabria, another prof. He wrote to Falcomatà: “the school where I teach is not a seat, what should we sanitize if we don’t vote here?”