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Press release Snals – One of the central themes of the political and social debate, in this period of health emergency, is the importance of the school in the presence. Suddenly, after years in which teachers have lived the weight of a bewildering loneliness, experiencing the indifference of institutions on their own skin, now suddenly the essential value of training and the fundamental role of school in our society.
At last the awareness has been acquired that the future of a community depends on education and training and that focusing on the training of the new generations is not an option, but a necessity, if one still wants to believe in the future.
The question of teaching activities in presence, in the period of the health emergency, however, is complex and requires an adequate analysis and descends to the individual realities of educational institutions. Face-to-face schooling is a priority for everyone, first of all for school personnel, but it is clear that it is not enough to distribute a surgical mask and install disinfectant gel dispensers to protect those who gravitate towards the school, from students to teachers, from staff administrative to collaborators. ; Above all, these cannot be the measures to guarantee the health of those who, even for personal reasons, are among the categories at greatest risk of the possible consequences of infection. Managers did their best to make schools safe, spending the summer months meter in hand, defining safe distances between desks, driving between staggered entrances, and strict safety protocols that had to be enforced to avoid type of meeting, they asked and got everyone’s collaboration to run a complicated and delicate organizational machine, which sees thousands of people converge in each school every day, between students, teachers,
administrative staff, all involved in sharing spaces for at least four / five hours of daily activity.
What can be the answer to all this? Certainly, we must consider that teachers, like doctors, are exposed to a high risk of contagion. However, while doctors have very strict safety protocols, wearing coveralls, masks and visors, teachers only receive a surgical mask. However, there are an average of 25 to 30 people in a class, including pupils, basic teachers and support teachers. It stays there for at least 4/5 hours a day and surgical masks alone are not very effective in a similar situation. In this sense, it would be convenient, to contain the risk of contagion, especially among the categories with the highest probability of reporting serious consequences in the contraction of the coronavirus, to allow teachers and school personnel to use FFP2 / FFP3 masks.
Another problem, which runs the risk of unleashing dangerous social conflicts, unwanted in an already delicate period, concerns the vaccine distribution program. It is clear that it will be necessary to hypothesize priorities between the different job categories, but it cannot be ignored that teachers, along with all school personnel, are on a par with doctors, exposed in the front line to the risk of contagion. Each teacher spends two to five hours a day in contact with a number of students ranging between 50 and 150 units.
A situation that becomes particularly risky in secondary schools, where the audience, which varies between 14 and 20 years, represents the category considered most involved in the transmission of the virus, due to the scant attention that young people pay to compliance with contagion containment measures, especially in relationships with colleagues.
Therefore, if it is considered appropriate that schools remain open, because teaching must be carried out in presence, it would be desirable to include school personnel, along with health personnel, in the first stage of vaccines to be administered, to protect a category of high risk of contagion. This is to avoid overloading hospitals and intensive care units, and to ensure the regular performance of teaching activities, for which it is not enough to keep schools open, but we must act to protect the health of teachers and all staff. school. to avoid keeping students in the classroom, but teachers at home, quarantined or worse still in the hospital.
It is precisely at this stage that decisions must be made and priorities established. If the Minister of Education continues to affirm that face-to-face teaching must be guaranteed, he should probably take equally strong positions in the protection of school personnel, considering the protection of the health of workers who, without great defenses and adequate protection devices, did not hesitate to appear in person for state exams last summer and they were not repressed during this school year, as long as the activity was carried out in person, but today they need to feel protected in their right to health.
In any case, SNALS considers it essential at the current time of emergency not to amplify the reasons for the social conflict, trusting in the reestablishment of correct union relations for which it declares its unlimited availability and striving to offer its own contribution of analysis and proposal regardless of the need to sign an agreement or understanding or not. The spirit of collaboration, at such a serious time for the educational community and for the entire country, is measured by union options and the fight actions concretely implemented and not only by the formal exchange of agreements and understandings.
General Secretary Elvira Serafini
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