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“I can confirm the government’s willingness to reopen. We wanted to do it in December, but we postponed it at the request of the Regions. Then we wanted to go back to 75% and instead we accepted the 50% suggestion. We collaborate: now the time has come to Return to classes “: the Minister of Education Lucía Azzolina in an interview broadcast today in Fatto Quotidiano does not seem at all doubtful about the date of January 7 for the return to classes of secondary school students. But meanwhile there is a fairly compact front that asks for a postponement. For health and organizational reasons. Starting with the regions. While Ata teachers and staff do not want the school to reopen.
Regions that do not want to open the school on January 7
There are just three days left and yesterday Giuseppe Conte himself announced through the press agencies that the reopening of the institutes is not questioned. The government program foresees the return to class of 50% of the students by January 7, while if the contagion curve is controlled later, from January 18 the return must be regulated, reaching 75% attendance. Among the rules for returning to school will be the entry and exit parentheses with lessons until 4 in the afternoon and, in turn, on Saturdays. Secondary schools will also have reduced hours: no longer the 60-minute fees, but 45-50. Then there is public transport: the action plans have been entrusted to the prefects who will have to guarantee the service with capacity reduced to 50%, while the local authorities will have to prepare a preferential lane for the swab tests to the students.
But in the meantime, the Regions are organizing and working on ordinances that will postpone the opening. The first to move was the president of the Campania Region, Vincenzo De Luca, who has already decided to stagger back to school, starting from primary school and kindergarten to reach full capacity by the end of the month. The governor of Puglia, Michele Emiliano, wants to do the same, but could evaluate the possibility of leaving families the option of returning to class or distance education and in the meantime thinks about delaying everything for a week. Luca Zaia in Veneto, on the other hand, will publish today an order postponing the resumption of secondary school, while yesterday the governors of the Northern League (Friuli, Lombardy, Veneto, Umbria, Sardinia, Calabria and Trentino) after a meeting with Matteo Salvini they wrote a common note in which they complain of “many critical problems related to the containment of the pandemic”. The president of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, Massimiliano Fedriga, “has imagined an ordinance that moves the return to class of secondary school children after January 31,” announced the Regional Councilor for Education, Alessia Rosolen, during a press conference . “Obviously,” he added, “there are possibilities of intervening between now and January 31, depending on how the epidemiological curve is going to change in the coming weeks.”
Red and orange zone throughout Italy from January 7 to 15: the calendar of restrictions and regions at risk
EDIT mineral 12.50: In Veneto, the closure of secondary schools continues until January 31. This was announced to journalists by regional president Luca Zaia, who signed an ordinance to that effect. “It does not seem prudent to us,” added Zaia, “in an epidemiological situation in Italy to reopen schools. This is what we must do today for the good of the community.” “I thank – continued Zaia – the director of the Palumbo regional school, I spoke with the councilors, I notified the Prefect of Venice Zappalorto. I think many colleagues will make a similar arrangement. We do not have transportation problems, I want to clarify ”.
EDIT mineral 12.55: “We think that it is correct to avoid the reopening of schools present from the 7th, with the risk of seeing an increase in infections”. Thus, the vice president of the Marche Region, Mirco Carloni, speaking with journalists on the sidelines of the presentation of the state of the Pesarese economy edited by the provincial Cna. For number two of Palazzo Raffaello, “it is evident that the greatest positivity occurs among young people between 10 and 19 years old, who are asymptomatic, but vectors of contagion, also in relation to the English variant. We are working so that the Marches continue being in the yellow band and we think that the lessons for high school students should continue at a distance. The final evaluation – Carlon concluded – will be made by President Acquaroli for today “.
The problem is that the government’s plan will have to face a specific risk: that is, from the change in the parameters to define the color of the regions announced by the same government yesterday to the local authorities, there are those who risk opening schools on January 7 and ending in the orange or red zone on the 11th, the institutes having to close four days later. A paradox that does not seem to interest Azzolina too much: “It was the regions that asked to return to 50% when even the Municipalities seemed to favor 75%. On December 23, the agreement that the closure of the baccalaureate was from from now the last, but alternative. We are talking about black and white commitments, starting with improving monitoring in schools. If a commitment is made in front of the entire government, I hope it will be respected ”.
Do schools open on 7 and close on 11?
But there are not only Campania, Puglia and Veneto on the barricades (even Bonaccini’s Emilia-Romagna is said to be perplexed). So much so that Corriere della Sera speaks of a hypothesis of a moratorium that would explode the date of the 7th: “secondary schools would restart in attendance, always for a partial number of students, as soon as the new monitoring and restrictions system is ready, therefore, The 11th or more probably The 18th. On the table is also the proposal to get to know the Regions and their fears of going back to class in high school in exchange for a clear commitment not to close primary and secondary schools as some governors had done in the last few months. ”One of the few to leave is the President of the Liguria Region, Giovanni Toti:“ Where new restrictive measures are foreseeable and necessary, it is useless to reopen secondary schools for a few days, maybe two, and then close “, he said at the end of the comparison with the Government about the measures that will be introduced as of next January 7.” It would only be a political decision that someone from the government would like to raise r their own flag – he concluded -, without any advantage for the students and with many more inconveniences for the families ”.
Meanwhile, principals and teachers are still preparing schedules to start over with 50 percent of students present, in two shifts from 8-10 and also on Saturdays. But there are situations in which secondary schools will not even be open to 50 percent, as in Brescia where several institutions will start with a third of the students present “for health precaution reasons”, while in Lazio the first exceptions arrive to the Double shifts and 50-minute lessons for classes of more than five hours. Unions are for reference. From the UIL to the CISL, to the Snals, strong doubts arise about the risks of contagion and, therefore, the government is asked to include teachers and non-teaching personnel among the priorities for access to the vaccine.
And what do the experts say? Giovanni Sebastiani, from the National Research Council, advises against the opening: “An imprudence now that the contagion has resumed its growth and that it has not decreased since November. It could depend on the English variant and the situation is not under control.” According to the mathematician, the reopening of schools had a positive impact on the infection in October and November, when the second wave arrived.
Meanwhile, according to a survey carried out by the specialized magazine Orizzonte Scuola, the conditions for the reopening of the institutes are lacking. A total of 15,433 users participated in the survey and spoke to express their opinion about the back to school on January 7. The question answered by those who participated in the survey was: “Are there conditions to return to school?” The result was clear: 14,109 users, or 91.42%, said “No” when the school reopened, believing that security conditions do not currently exist. Back to school supporters are a clear minority: 1,207 users, or 7.82%. Only 117 users who have not yet developed an opinion on the topic of back to school.
