Valditara to the EU Council of Ministers of Education: "Economic enhancement to attract teachers, restore authority and social dignity to the figure of the teacher"
The Minister of Education and Merit, Giuseppe Valditara, spoke today in Brussels at the “Education, Youth, Culture and Sport” Council (EYCS) together with the Ministers of the other European Union countries.
Among the priorities, the Minister underlined the need to "attract and keep qualified teachers and trainers in the profession".
Three fundamental themes emerged from the debate: the importance of schools in the social and economic development of the various countries, the shortage of teachers and the need to motivate them, quality incoming and ongoing training for all teachers.
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"The reform of the new recruitment we are working on goes in the direction of strong initial training and constant updating in service, also linked to economic increases".
The Minister underlined the importance of the reform dedicated to student orientation measures, attributing a key role to teachers in the personalization of education, with the introduction of the figure of the tutor teacher, who will be selected and paid for this new task. "In dialogue with the families, the tutor teacher will accompany each student to enhance their talents, to recover from learning difficulties, to select future study paths, also in the awareness of the employment developments that they have".
"To make the figure of the teacher socially competitive, to restore dignity, centrality, authority, the economic issue is fundamental", continued the Minister. “To this end, investment in education and research should be kept out of the Stability Pact. I propose”, said Valditara, “to organize a conference between Finance Ministers and Education Ministers, to place the centrality of the issue of school funding at European level as well”. It is also essential "to simplify the work of teachers and identify measures against burnout, because that of the teacher is a stressful profession".
“We must focus”, concluded the Minister, “on beautiful schools, pleasant places where one can teach and study pleasantly. We must also provide incentives where one works in disadvantaged areas, in 'frontier' schools, or in areas where the cost of living is much higher. And we must also imagine, in my opinion, a technical table to study how to put the figure of the teacher at the center at a European level”.