Azzolina illustrates interventions against educational poverty in collaboration with the Third Sector and Associations: "Emergency increases social gaps, weaker groups pay more for the crisis: a duty to intervene"
“The crisis has weighed and weighs on our students in a different way. Those belonging to the weaker groups pay twice for this emergency which has increased social gaps, making the need to guarantee equal opportunities to the most fragile social groups even more urgent ”. This is what the Minister of Education, Lucia Azzolina, recalled this morning, presenting to the Ministry the interventions to combat educational poverty that will be carried out in collaboration with the Third sector and associations.
The event was attended by Carmela Pace, President of Unicef Italia, Raffaella Milano, Director of the Save the Children Italy Program, Cesare Moreno, President of the Onlus Street Masters Association, Floriana Fanizza, National Head of Women Impresa Coldiretti, Claudia Fiaschi, Spokesman for the National Third Sector Forum.
The Minister explained that "since the beginning of the pandemic, thanks also to the actions taken with high-level partners, the goal has been to reach the weakest, children at risk of early school leaving, those living in disadvantaged conditions . A work that is often not very visible, which takes place in the suburbs, far from the gaze of most citizens, which touches millions of girls and boys, girls and boys who do not have all the means they should and which the State has a duty to take care of ".
In 2020, the Ministry allocated more than 66 million to combat educational poverty, including interventions and projects against dispersion, the enhancement of the training offer, investments to guarantee connections and PCs for those who do not have them for distance learning, restoration of classrooms and vandalized structures. "For 2021 we have another 118 million to be allocated to these objectives in collaboration with the Third Sector and Associations: the coming months will be crucial to strengthen our action so that no one is left behind", recalled Azzolina.
“Educational poverty deprives children and young people of the opportunities to which they are entitled and requires solutions that use an organic and systemic approach. Guaranteeing the realization of their potential to every child, girl and adolescent is a 'common good' for which we are all responsible ”, explained the President of UNICEF Italy, Carmela Pace. “We understood that the situation was serious and we got busy. We have developed programs with over 150 participants. Socio-educational interventions inside and outside the school in the suburbs of Naples, to prevent dispersion and promote social inclusion and active citizenship. Even so, we have promoted responsibility in our children ”, added Cesare Moreno, President of the Onlus Road Masters association.
“The crisis we are experiencing has made the importance of building educational alliances even more evident. We have seen the school enter the houses, the parents ask for support from the teachers and the teachers turn to the operators of the third sector, with the latter busy every day in tracking down children and young people who were off the radar of the schools. This is a very precious heritage that must not be lost ”, said Raffaela Milano, Director of the Italy-Europe programs of Save the Children.
“The school is in certain situations the only place where some families can enjoy a full meal”, underlined Floriana Fanizza, head of Donne Impresa Coldiretti. “We consolidate the collaboration with the institutions to transform educational presidia, even spontaneous networks that have been formed in the territory into stable alliances, into structural tools available to our communities”, explained Claudia Fiaschi, spokesperson for the National Third Sector Forum.
Finally, representatives of schools already involved in projects financed by the Ministry intervened and, in particular, Paola Carnevale, Head of the school of the Istituto comprehensive Eugenio Montale di Scampia, who presented the project "The School in Movement" for which "it is important not to only cure early school leaving, but prevent it ”; Gianni Maddaloni, Judo teacher who collaborates with the Institute in a project against dispersion, explained that thanks to sport, at school “we teach the value of respect for others and education, even to the children of bosses”.
Daniela Mercante, head teacher of the Comprehensive Portella della Ginestra di Vittoria Institute, described the educational project "Orto in Conduct" to "change the world starting from school". Olimpia Pasolini, Principal of the Vittorio Veneto Institute of Naples, illustrated the project “The school outside the school”.