“It must be a planned opening, a sustainable opening, which allows students to always have the same quality of educational offer, always the same attention, but with more open numbers”. So the university minister Anna Maria Bernini he spoke to ANSA about the forthcoming opening of the closed number in Medicine.
“The Commission – explained the minister on the sidelines of the meeting at the University of Molise with the rectors of southern Italy – which we created at the ministry will finish its work next week and then continue on specialization schools because this is obviously only the “beginning: we cannot open the degree course and then transport the bottleneck to specialization schools. So once the opening is over, which will be around 30% starting from the next academic year, work will begin on rationalizing the schools specialization”.
The Undersecretary for Education also spoke on the subject Paola Frassinetti Today in Genoa for Sea Day. “The new entrance tests to the medical faculties have led to an increase in enrollments. We naturally care that this test is meritocratic because the selection must be based on merit and many times the logic of the tests risks escaping this principle”. “The government’s goal is to combat the shortage of doctors in Italy, especially in the emergency rooms – he concluded. It is an emergency, we want to insert young specialists as quickly as possible in the structures and polyclinics, the most suitable institutions for combine healthcare with new researchers”.
The reactions to the closed number
Meanwhile, i student unions contested the numerus clausus, asking for it to be overcome in favor of a more inclusive model. The University Union and the High School Student Network they carried out a flash mob yesterday in front of the Ministry of Education and Merit, while further initiatives were carried out at universities across the country. “We are against this model of access to higher education, based on national and local programmed numbers. We make ourselves heard – he declares Frederick Amalfi dell’Udu – with demonstration actions that will continue until 22 April. We started with the flash mob in front of the ministry, on the occasion of the first entrance tests to medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine. In the next few days we will be at the university entrances to distribute our guides and give support to the 80,000 people who are participating in these tests”. access to Medicine and Veterinary courses.
Amalfa continues: “We do not consider the announced expansion of 30% of the places available in Medicine sufficient. For this reason, we ask that we move towards the definitive overcoming of the programming of accesses through a progressive enlargement. We are in fact aware of how it is not possible to immediately overcome the programmed number, having to guarantee a high level of quality of teaching and internships.On the other hand, a path made of political will and investments in space, the right to study and integrated University Hospitals is needed, as well as adapting secondary hospital structures to the reception and trainee training”. “This year – concludes Amalfa – some aspects of the Tolc-Med and Tolc-Vet have complicated the lives of aspiring doctors and veterinarians. We are perplexed by the fact that after the test has been carried out, a different coefficient of individual difficulty will be generated which will affect the result final. It is a fairly random statistical evaluation. In addition to this, the forecast of the second test session, certainly positive, betrays an absolute disorganization as it was scheduled for the period from 15 to 25 July, close to the final exams”.
“The numerus clausus is incompatible with an education model that should be based on democracy and the universality of the right to study. We believe that access to knowledge should be an incompressible right and we are against a vision of education tertiary sector that is work-centric. For this reason we believe that students should be able to freely orient themselves towards the faculty that can best stimulate their knowledge, aspirations and skills” he adds George Carratta of the High School Students Network, also in response to the doctors’ union organizations which, in recent months, have expressed themselves against the abolition of the limited number because it does not solve the shortage of doctors. Finally, the student unions announce that they are ready to fight in court for any irregularity they may encounter during the exams.
ANSA agency
Schillaci, “more places but no stop to limited numbers, the real shortage is among nurses”. Student protests (ANSA)