The dream of a permanent job
The first advantage offered by the chair is to secure a “permanent position” in the public sphere for life, which is anything but a foregone conclusion in an era, such as ours, which has made flexibility and structural precariousness its horse. battle. It is no coincidence, moreover, if that of the teacher is still one of the most coveted jobs today. Added to this is that of weekly working hours (just 18 in secondary schools, 22 in primary schools and 25 in infant schools, distributed over no less than five days), which leaves a lot of free time available. It is true that we must also take into account the time dedicated to the preparation of lessons, the verification of homework, class councils and teachers’ colleges, but it is also true that, compared to other jobs, this is a completely different advantage. that negligible.
Holidays
And what about the long vacation periods enjoyed by teachers? In addition to the holidays – New Year (January 1st), Epiphany (January 6th); Assumption of the Virgin Mary (August 15th), All Saints (November 1st), Immaculate Conception (December 8th) and Christmas (December 25th) – and in fact, to the long summer “break”, they are also entitled to longer breaks at Easter and Christmas. Basically, professors have to work in the classroom only for nine months a year and, taking into account the more than convenient weekly working hours, they have the possibility to plan and plan with the utmost tranquility, and often even in advance, great part of their personal commitments. Without forgetting that, falling into the category of state employees with permanent contracts, professors can also have access to numerous scholarships provided by INPS, make use of loans with salary-backed loans and, in the case of non self-sufficient subjects, also benefit from home assistance.
Teachers and robots
Having said the opportunities, we also try to understand what the risks – at least the future ones – of the profession may be. Faced with the technological evolution that makes many jobs within the reach of machines, will robots be able to “defeat” teachers? Or, rather, will the teachers be able to “survive” the robots? The progressive automation of the production phases is an established reality and in strong and constant growth. And, moreover, the critical issues that emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic – with heavy losses in almost all strategic sectors of the economy – have done nothing but give a further acceleration to this process considered by many now necessary and essential for safeguard the future and sustainability of companies. The main objective remains to implement efficient strategies in order to prevent any new and unpredictable catastrophic events from bringing the entire production sector to its knees in the future. But, returning to the initial question, teachers and aspiring teachers can breathe a sigh of relief. No robots will come to take their place. No robot will “steal” their professorship or override them in the rankings they have crowded for years. In fact, mainly the categories that deal with manual work and that do not require particular skills or specializations of any kind will be affected by this epochal revolution. The school, therefore, will remain – at least for the moment – in the safe and reliable hands of the teachers, whose particular and essential psycho-pedagogical function would hardly be combined with the extraordinary potential of a robot.
The importance of the human relationship
But the human relationship that is established between teacher and pupils is a fundamental and essential process of the training course, which could in no way be declined by a simple robot. “The teaching function – reads among other things in art. 395 of the Legislative Decree. 297/94 – is intended as an essential explanation of the activity of transmitting culture, of contributing to its development and of stimulating the participation of young people in this process and in the human and critical formation of their personality ”. While art. 26 of the relative National Collective Labor Agreement highlights how the teacher is called to “promote the human, cultural, civil and professional development of the students”. All things, in hindsight, impossible for a robot to put into practice. And that firmly protect the profession from any threat of “invasion”.