Valditara: “Many of them don't even have compulsory schooling, it's unacceptable. Either they fill the gap or they lose income.”
As part of the modification of the basic income for 2023 and therefore of the reform in 2024 announced in the budget law, the Minister of Education and Merit Giuseppe Valditara had the Ministry's structures carry out a research on young people in the range included between 18 and 29 years of income earners. The research gave an outcome that the Minister defines as "surprising and disturbing", with respect to which he announces that he has elaborated "a proposal that shows how the word Merit in my vision and that of the government is not a rhetorical tinsel, but constitutes a precise political direction ”.
The proposal starts from a precise fact. “In Italy there are 364.101 recipients of basic income in the range between 18 and 29 years old” explains Minister Valditara “Of them, we discovered that as many as 11.290 only have an elementary school certificate or even no qualification, and another 128.710 only the title middle school licence. Well, we believe there should be an obligation to complete the school course for those who have illegally interrupted it or a professional training course in the case of people with a higher education qualification but not employed or engaged in training updates, penalty in both cases the loss of income, or any welfare measure that will replace it from 2024. These kids prefer to receive income rather than study and train to build their own dignified life plan".
“The income linked to the tolerated illegality of failing to complete compulsory schooling” continues the Minister. "It is morally unacceptable: it would mean legitimizing and even rewarding a violation of the law".
"Even the perception of income by a young person who has higher education qualifications, has no personal or family impediments, but does not look for a job, or invest in training himself, is not economically and culturally sustainable", continues the Minister “A boy cannot consciously give up on cultivating his talents in any form, and at the same time be paid by the State, or by Italian citizens. The Grand Alliance for Education and for Merit that I launched implies, like all alliances, the principle of responsibility. There is no merit without responsibility”.
"I hear that cutting income would be inhuman", concludes the Minister "It seems inhuman to me to live with illegality, to trample on the right to study, to educate children to maintain themselves at the expense of society rather than to believe in themselves and in the possibility to improve their living conditions".