Minister Bianchi: "The commitment to put education at the center continues and we are starting an innovative path looking to the future"
Green light in the Council of Ministers to the new support decree, which contains an important package of measures also for the world of education: from the rules for the orderly start of the next school year, to the Fund to allow schools to continue to face the health emergency, up to the recruitment plan designed to cover vacant professorships, in view of September, but also to start a new course in the recruitment of teachers, starting with the acceleration of recruitment on scientific subjects (STEM subjects).
"The government confirms its commitment to putting the school at the center", underlines the Minister of Education, Patrizio Bianchi, who continues: "We continue to allocate resources for the safety of female students, students, all staff, in view of the recovery of September. We are also building an innovative path that goes beyond the health emergency: with the interventions on the recruitment of teaching staff, we solve existing critical issues, which have been going on for some time, and we trace a path to take that does not look only to the next months, but to competitions for the next few years. In fact, we are already implementing the provisions of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan for schools ”.
“Since our inauguration, which took place in mid-February, - explains the Minister - we have been committed to finding solutions aimed at the immediate, but with a perspective vision”. For this reason, the Minister continues, “we started from the analysis of what exists, from the numbers of vacant chairs and the teachers available to hire. We have rebuilt the picture, we have developed a Plan that allows us to give answers to the school system as a whole: to those who have been teaching for some time and, at the same time, to the youngest who want to dedicate themselves to teaching, but above all to our children, who have the right to have qualified teachers and to have them in the chair quickly. When fully operational, we foresee annual competitions, which can allow a quick mechanism for covering retirements, avoiding the peaks of substitutes in recent years with the consequent repercussions on insecurity ".
The main measures
The start of the new school year
The measure launched today allows the Minister of Education to speed up the procedures necessary for the start of the next school year. In particular, the recruitment of teachers, but also the provisional assignments, the uses and the attributions of the substitute teachers to the schools by the territorial offices of the Ministry will be carried out by next 31 August, the date by which, usually, only the recruitments ended. in role. This acceleration will make it possible to have a stable framework, with respect to the presence in schools of the necessary teachers, by the beginning and not in the second half of September as was the case in the past. The objective of the Ministry is to ensure that the timing envisaged for this year then goes into full capacity for the next few years, as it will be possible, even for new hires, to request mobility not after five school years from being admitted to the role, as happens today, but after three years in the place of employment. A timeline that holds together the right to educational continuity of students with the possibility, for those hired in a location distant from that of their own residence or of their family, to approach home in advance. Also for September in conjunction with the Regions, and in compliance with their competence on the subject, we will work to standardize the start date of the lessons.
Additional resources for the emergency
To continue managing the health emergency and continue to protect the safety of staff, female students and students, a Fund of 350 million is provided for state schools, for the purchase of goods and services. Another 50 million are planned for the equal parties for the same purpose. The possibility is then given to local authorities, which are owners of the school buildings, to continue to use, also for the next school year, the resources already received in 2020 for the rental of premises and the rental of temporary structures to increase the number of classrooms. Another 70 million is also earmarked for this.
The plan for the recruitment of teachers
The decree also provides for highly anticipated measures on personnel, for the appointment of teachers in view of September, including the acceleration of recruitment on STEM subjects, science subjects. The way is also mapped for the next competitions, which will have to be fast and on an annual basis.
The Plan was outlined after having thoroughly analyzed the picture of vacant chairs and also of the staff useful to cover them present in the existing rankings. With the package launched, teachers will be hired during this summer on vacant and available professorships in the rankings when exhausted and in those of merit of the competitions of the past years. Together with them, the winners of the extraordinary competition for the lower and upper secondary school will take the chair and will be hired in advance of the three years initially established. For the additional professorships that will still be vacant, both for the common places and for the support, to which particular attention will be given, a competition path will be envisaged that provides for the temporary hiring of qualified and specialized teachers present in the first GPS bracket. (Provincial Gradutories for Substitutes) who have, in addition to the title, also at least 36 months of service in the last ten years: at the end of the training year they will have to take a test in front of a commission outside the school where they served. In case of positive evaluation, they will be hired for an indefinite period. Those who have completed their specialization course on support by July 31st will also be able to enroll in the first GPS bracket.
At the same time, the ordinary competitions of the lower and upper secondary school are accelerated. It starts with the scientific disciplines - Physics, Mathematics, mathematics and physics, science and information technology for upper secondary school - also in coherence with the strengthening measures for learning these disciplines contained in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan . In light of the recently approved competition regulations (Law Decree 44 of 2021), the 'STEM' procedure will be faster: there will be a written test with multiple disciplinary answers and an oral test, then we will proceed with the ranking. The goal is to take on these subjects as soon as possible to bring new recruits into the school and cover the numerous empty chairs in the scientific area.
Finally, the decree traces the route of the next competitions which will have to be on an annual basis and, even these, simplified, in order to speed up the entries, while still guaranteeing a selection, and to cover the gaps left by retirements. The new competitions will have written test with multiple disciplinary answers, oral test, evaluation of qualifications and, downstream, the ranking. The formula provided will also be used for the competitions already announced in 2020.