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TURIN. What until a few days ago was considered the last resort, has now become an essential choice. During the day, Alberto Cirio will sign a new regional ordinance to regulate the use of distance education, integrated with face-to-face teaching, for high school students. The government decree of October 18 recommends the adoption of “flexible forms in the organization of teaching activities in territorial contexts in which critical situations arise and of particular risk for the spread of infection.” With 933 cases of coronavirus registered yesterday alone, which is equivalent to a tenth of the total of 9,338 new positives in the whole of Italy, Piedmont is completely within this series. A reality that now forces Cirio to believe that the hypothesis that he tried to discard until the end, to avoid repercussions on the quality of education and on the organization of families, is now inevitable.
However, the same government ruled out that the measure could affect services for childhood and primary school, limiting the scope of flexible teaching only to upper secondary education classes, for which, in addition to lessons at distance integrated with the attendees, there is also a modulated management of the entrance time, which in any case should never be done before 9. “We had asked that the schools remain open for everyone, but if the means of transport cannot be improved because the government did not think about it in time, the only solution today is to intervene where less damage is done ”, explained Cirio, who in these hours spoke with the presidents of Lombardy and Liguria, Attilio Fontana and Giovanni Toti, to evaluate a common strategy. “Many of the Piedmontese children attend Lombard and Ligurian schools and vice versa, it is important that homogeneous actions are taken”.
The Lombard example
On Friday night, Fontana signed an ordinance requiring high schools to alternate between distance and face-to-face teaching, with the exception of lab activities. Piedmont is working on a detailed document, which defines the ways to organize the staggered entrances and the alternation between presence and remote activity. This morning the president, together with the commissioner of the crisis unit in charge of the Antonio Rinaudo school – who is following the delicate game in person – will meet with the director of the school’s regional office, Fabrizio Manca. In the afternoon there is also a face-to-face meeting with the unions. The objective is to reach a shared solution with the school world.
It is likely that, due to staff shortages, many schools choose to favor the use of distance education for all five-year-olds rather than staggered admissions, which require the availability of teaching staff even in the afternoon.
However, it will be anything but a revolution for the schools of Turin. There are 53 of the 83 secondary schools that have already resorted to distance lessons since September to ensure educational continuity in cases where the class has been forced to quarantine. Yesterday there were 162 new positive aspects in the school environment. In the first month of follow-up of 8,150 swabs performed on students, the positive cases were 650, in addition to 226 school operators.
Reduce risks
To minimize the risk of paralyzing classes and teaching, the Region is all about rapid tests. The first 50,000 arrived yesterday: the goal is to get a million. They are less sensitive than molecular swabs but can guarantee a result in fifteen minutes. Critical to alleviating pressure on the laboratory network and improving detection activity now that the pandemic has begun to rage. –
