The campaign to raise awareness of the State Police against "fake news, hoaxes and urban legends" linked to high school exams is underway
The Security Protocol and the many conflicting news circulated in recent months further confuse the boys: according to a research by Skuola.net 1 maturing in 4 thinks that he will not be able to lower his mask even while speaking in front of the commission, 1 in 2 that will come to him measured the fever at the school entrance and that she will have to wear gloves.
There will be no leaks related to exam tracks as in the past. Nor is the fight against the use of smartphones during rehearsals. But, even on the occasion of the Maturity 2020, the danger of 'fake news' spreading among students is still lurking. Because this year's state exam - which will be remembered as the one carried out 'at the time of the coronavirus' - lends itself very well to erroneous interpretations. A maturity whose final appearance was made official only a month ago due to the uncertainties related to the epidemiological scenario and the related measures to be taken. The exam will thus have a completely new formula (no writings but only an oral interview, however different from the past). With, in addition, a Safety Protocol to be observed to carry out the test in presence at school. A long list of information that graduates have not yet fully digested.
This will be the central theme of the traditional awareness campaign that the Postal and Communications Police is carrying out in collaboration with the student portal Skuola.net, now in its thirteenth consecutive year. The goal of "Safe Maturity" is always to counter fake news, hoaxes and urban legends on the eve of the exam. To prevent kids from wasting precious time on misleading news. But, above all, to reassure them. Given that, overwhelmed by an enormous amount of advice (often from the pessimistic approach) to avoid contagion from Covid-19, it is as if a kind of 'live' oral terror has spread among the students.
This is confirmed by the annual monitoring carried out by Skuola.net for the State Police, on a sample of about 5.000 fifth-year high school students. This time he focused on the socio-health standards adopted by the Ministry of Education on the basis of the indications of the Technical Scientific Committee. Approximately 1 in 4 maturing years, for example, thinks that he will be forced to have the mask firmly fixed on his face for his entire stay in the school building, even during the interview; when, on the other hand, the Guidelines allow the student the possibility of 'lowering' it to carry out the interview, given that the arrangement of the workstations requires strict compliance with a distance of at least two meters between those present in the classroom. And 21% are resigned to the idea of having to go to school alone, without anyone; while the Protocol does not prohibit an accompanying person (only one) from attending the exam.
A particularly controversial topic is that on the rules for access to school: students (and commissioners) will not be measured the fever but they will only need to produce a declaration certifying the absence of symptoms attributable to Covid-19. Too bad that only 1 in 3 is aware of it; the majority (46%) think that the temperature measurement will be mandatory; while 19%, to the exact opposite, are convinced that there will be no control in this sense. The same can be said for the issue of gloves: no obligation, according to the Protocol it will be enough to sanitize your hands frequently (with the gels made available by the institute), but only 1 in 2 is updated on this procedure. The only really clear step is that of the time spent in the structures: almost all (92%) know that they will be able to arrive about 15 minutes of their exam and that they will have to leave immediately once the test is over.
The "anti-hoax" initiative of the State Police and Skuola.net is used precisely to convey the correct messages and clear the field from the wrong ones. The high school exam is a very important appointment for young people and for this reason it is necessary that they maintain the necessary serenity to face them. False news, on the other hand, can lead to sterile distractions and, especially in a historical moment such as the current one, there is a risk that young people will lose the concentration that deserves one of the most important appointments of their student life.
For this reason, to reinforce the message using a language closer to that of the high school students, a video was also made in collaboration with the youtuber Nikolais, which will be disseminated on Skuola.net and on its Facebook, Instagram and YouTube channels. An ironic content that reviews the wrong behaviors that a student could assume by reading the Security Protocol in a distorted way: there are the denier and the phobic, the gatherer and the anxious, the collector of self-declarations and the social spacer.
In addition, the operators of the PS online Commissariat will also be available this year to the students in the hours immediately preceding the start of the maxi-oral, to answer all their questions and doubts about the information circulating on the net. With a representative of the State Police who will also be present at the traditional Skuola.net live broadcast on the eve of the first day of exams, to say good luck and further reassure all students struggling with this anomalous Maturity 2020.