Welcome to the Republic of Ideas in Bologna, where the four days of events and debates on the theme of “Right to the future” have begun and will continue until Sunday 11 July. After the greeting to the city with the mayor Virginio Merola, the president of the Region Stefano Bonaccini, the director of Repubblica Maurizio Molinari and Conchita Sannino, on the stage of the Municipal Theater the Minister of Education Patrizio Bianchi answered the questions of the students and Ilaria Venturi , and discussed the main themes of the school with them. In particular on the return in presence. The minister was very clear on this.
“I’m doing the battle to get back in attendance in September, it’s what I’ve been doing day and night since I arrived. Everyone here has a responsibility. The CTS is not Voldemort and I’m not Harry Potter. They are doing analysis, but there there are different responsibilities that must be taken on. I commit myself to this battle: I do it but I also tell everyone, let’s do it together. The CTS makes his statements, they tell us that there are still health problems and they must tell them what happens if there is there are certain levels of vaccination coverage “. On the vaccination obligation for school staff, however, Bianchi says: “At present there is no hypothesis of obligation. We have no plans to do so, but there is a very strong appeal for collective solidarity. Let’s make an appeal today because everyone can be vaccinated precisely in the sense of collective solidarity “.
The minister looks beyond the difficulties. “In recent months there have been many beautiful things – he explains – we must exchange experiences more, we must exchange them and make them become everyone’s heritage. There are wonderful experiences, exchanges must be made all over the country, the theme of mending the country is the main. We need a loving school, but computers are not enough for this, we need people. We need to invest in training “.
“I do not promise to engage in the battle for school in the presence: I am already doing the battle. But let’s do it all together, we need responsibility”, insists the minister, who on stage faces the suffering, the uncertainties, the hopes of the children who they faced two years of Dad. Sitting next to him are Anna, 19 (“but I seem to have lived 18, I wonder if I can go and follow the lessons at the University”) and Jacopo, 16, who turned his bicycle into a bench and followed the videolessons in front of his closed school. They ask for certainties, to be able to really go back to class, to stop taking lessons from their bedroom.
“School, as a place where we grow up, must be present. But we all have to commit ourselves. Back to normal? I always say: not the same as before. In the one before the pandemic, one in 3 children got lost. This phase is achieved by profoundly innovating, and to do so it is necessary to deal with that part of the country that is not Bologna “. The audience of Repubblica delle Idee is clamoring, school is a topic that touches everyone. The minister insists: “I am working day and night, let’s do it together. The school must return to the presence, it must be much more open than before, it must be a school of affection. We must educate about affections, and this also includes sex, it’s part of our life “.
But starting again is not easy, especially since the pandemic is not over. “The restart must have the school at the center, but this is not a trivial matter, given that the school has never been in the center of the country. In recent months I have seen an incredible amount of experimentation, of” new school “experiences: we have not yet been able to make it a system. Critical ability, curiosity, reading, are some of the values on which to base the future in the classroom. For me – the minister points out – the school must have three characteristics: knowing how to use the tools of the time , and not be used by them; understanding, not just learning; making community, a fundamental theme “.
Rethinking the school means “rethinking physical and learning spaces – continues the minister – they cannot be the same as in my times. And to do this there are European funds, which are not a gift, but money to invest. But as emerged from the Education G20, current expenditure on education must also be increased, which means investing in people: of course we need the material structure, but we also need people “.
“We take the opportunity to return to the presence but we build a new normality”, insists the minister replying to Jacopo, who reiterates the difficulties faced in two years by Dad, the loneliness lived on his skin, the impossibility of having a dialogue and a confrontation with peers and teachers. “We cannot go on just on technology“, Jacopo points out. “Technology must be managed with all possible human depth: the tools must be such, and not a reference for life”, replies the minister talking on stage with the two students.
The school tries to restart after the pandemic, but there are historical problems, by now deep-rooted, such as the chicken coop classes, caused, some in the audience recall, by the cutting of the chairs. “For fifteen years, since the Gelmini reform, there has been this problem” replies Bianchi. “We are seeing how to do with European funds, analyzing the budget. We are working on it”, insists the minister. “I do not have then that it takes more staff”, says the owner of the Education responding to the request of an Ata worker. And which priority school has within the government, asks another spectator: “Prime Minister Draghi is well aware of the situation of the school, but it is not only the government, which is very sensitive, but the whole of Italian society that must resume thinking to the school as its center “.
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