Rome, 14 September 2020 – The big day for over 5.5 million Italian students (out of the 8.3 million overall) has arrived: in 12 regions (in addition to the autonomous province of Trento) the bell of first day of school has sounded: after the hard months of the lockdown for the epidemic of Coronavirus with the classrooms locked, the rgazzi are back in class albeit with problems and criticalities. The official inauguration this afternoon in Vò Euganeo with the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, who arrived at the comprehensive ‘Rodari – Negri’ institute around 4.30 pm. “It is a very important day for the restart of our country, for the future of many generations”, the first words of the president. “Of course, the difficulties and the unknowns are well present in guaranteeing sociality and training for our girls and boys”, he added, speaking of “a necessary challenge, which concerns everyone”. On the problems of supplying masks and sanitizer in schools, Mattarella replied that “everyone is giving their all” to guarantee the necessary conditions for safety. The gear “will be able to come into operation with maximum effectiveness in the next few days”. The Minister of Education Lucia Azzolina also intervened in Vo ‘and compared the school to Ulysses’ Ithaca. “In the end, Ulysses made it. He managed to go home,” said Azzolina. “And, like Ulysses, the teaching and learner community today returns to its island, to its school”. The minister was then moved, not hiding a thread of emotion, when she stressed that “like Ithaca”, the school has become a “ground of contention”. Long applause at the end of his speech.
Let’s see how this first day of school is going, which will go down in history anyway pending an overall balance sheet.
Here Bologna – Here Milan – Here Florence
Coronavirus, the bulletin of 14 September
Campanella in Codogno, Alzano and Nembro
In one of the symbolic countries of Covid, Codogno, the bell had a special sound. The mayor: “Finally a good sound”. At the Comprehensive Institute “All Saints” it was decided that, from now on, the school garden will be activated, ie the school in the garden. So much waiting also for Alzano and Nembro: trepidation, emotion and even a bit of apprehension characterized the reopening of the schools.
Positive first pupils
First Coronavirus positive student in South Tyrol. A pupil of the ‘Max Valier’ technological institute in Bolzano tested positive for the swab. In addition to the student, the 23 classmates and three teachers are also quarantined. Schools reopened and immediately closed, instead in the Municipality of Palombara Sabina, a medieval town hall on the outskirts of Rome, where the positivity of a child to Covid-19 forced the mayor Alessandro Palombi, one of the very few in the north-east quadrant of the capital to have initially confirmed the resumption of the school year to date, to issue a closing order for all schools of municipal competence.
The principals
“The school began with all the critical issues we know: delays in the delivery of new benches, staff not appointed, spaces lacking “. The president of the National Association of Principals said this to the Agi agency, Antonello Giannelli, who, however, judges positively the first day of school. “The climate was serene, there were no particular problems in following the established rules”.
Masks
“Until yesterday we distributed 94 million masks. Today we distribute another 65 million, considering that the students are eight and a half million, the teaching and non-teaching staff one and a half million, we have at least two weeks if not three of autonomy”. The extraordinary commissioner of the Covid emergency Domenico Arcuri told Vo ‘. “We are very satisfied, no mask will ever be missing until the end of the school year”
Transports
One of the most critical issues concerns the public transport. “They came from different regions very good news on the tightness of local public transport and school transport this morning; today with the reopening of the schools there was the first real test because millions of people were put in motion, just like in the pre-Covid-19 period “. Thus the Minister for Regional Affairs and Autonomies, Francesco Boccia.
Entrance to school
Students in single file at the entrance, different time slots for the entrances, colored paths delimited in the corridors, sanitizing at every corner: in the Covid era this has opened up to Terni and in almost all Italian cities the school year.
The “Cuba method”
We will use the ‘Cuba method’ in the Plexus Alonzi of the Padre Semeria inclusive institute, in Rome, that is, elementary school children will have to sit alternately on the long side and on the short side of the bench, because neither those on wheels nor the single ones arrived. Certainly not the most comfortable position to sit for 5 hours or more.
Measurement of fever
Another controversial point is the fever measurement to the students. Temperature measurement also at the entrance to school in all institutions of Norcia with thermoscanners. The measure was decided independently by the manager Rosella Tonti for students, teachers and the rest of the staff
Protest
This morning, for the first day of school, the students of the Lazio Middle Students Network mobilized by organizing flash mobs in some schools in Roma and throughout Lazio. And then banners and posters in different 40 cities, in front of schools, to say that the emergency has not been managed and that the time has come to revive the country through school.
Vacant chairs
One of the problems, like every year, is that of vacant professorships. Only in Milan and its province are 5,106 free tenured positions. The ratio is of one in five teachers who are missing, out of a total staff of 28,574. This ratio worsens in the case of support teachers: out of 4612 chairs planned, about one in two are missing, therefore almost 50%, and this against 960 new disability certifications received as of August 31st. The most critical situation is found in the middle school, where 2,184 tenure posts are missing, 906 of which are supporting positions. There are 1,795 vacant chairs in high school (of which 380 support), 994 in elementary school (of which 696 support) and 133 (of which 83 support) in nursery school.
Pisa, down child at home
A Pisa the support teacher is missing: baby down must give up the first day of school.
Near tragedy
Near tragedy on the first day of school in the province of Arezzo. A 16-year-old student from Sansepolcro was transported this morning to the Florentine hospital in Careggi for traumas and fractures reported following the fall from a skylight on the roof adjacent to the school attended in the Tiber city.
Monfalcone, positive teacher
A positive teacher at the ‘Michelangelo Buonarroti’ institute in Monfalcone, in the province of Gorizia. Subjected to fiduciary isolation pending the outcome of the swab 115 students belonging to 5 classes of the Institute. From tomorrow all students will be tested. The professor had been swab on 11 September.
The institutions
The Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte he accompanied his son to school in Rome, but left him near the building: “I always took him, but now he’s in middle school, so I left him first, for the last mile to go alone ‘ ‘Conte said: “We have confidence and enthusiasm.” Even the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza he accompanied his children holding them by the hand: “After many months it is the most beautiful moment”. The Minister of Education, Lucia Azzolina sent a message: “The students really want to go back to class and regain their social skills. This will be a complex year, we know, but we have worked hard and built a prevention strategy that will work if everyone does their part responsibly. a Vo is an important sign for a territory that has suffered but has never abandoned its students. It will be a beautiful day “. The governor of Piedmont is controversial, Alberto Cirio: “I start school with 20 thousand empty chairs in Piedmont, 20 thousand teachers who are missing, especially those of support. In the year of Covid, and with three months of time, it is inexcusable “.
