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Italy teachers go on strike over school funding bill

Thousands of Italian teachers and administrators take part in a demonstration to protest against Italian government’s “Good School” reform bill on May 5, 2015. ©AFP

Thousands of teachers in Italy have gone on strike in protest against a reform bill proposed by the government in Rome, which aims to slash funding for schools.

The strike, organized by Italy’s USB, UNICOBAS and ANIEF union federations, led to the closure of all schools in the country on Tuesday.

The reform plan proposed by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi reportedly seeks to refurbish Italy’s school system through investment by the private sector, creating thousands of new teaching positions and introducing unpaid apprenticeships.

However, the unions argue that the government’s so-called “good school” bill seeks to reduce the rights of education workers and increase their workload without a corresponding rise in their wages.

They also believe the plan leaves state schools under-funded, provides unfair advantages to private schools and fails to deal with the fundamental problems gripping the country’s educational system.

Thousands of Italian teachers and administrators take part in a demonstration to protest against Italian government’s education reform bill on May 5, 2015 in Rome. © AFP

The bill, which will see some 100,000 substitute teachers given permanent working contracts, was passed by the Italian cabinet back in March. However, unions argue that many more substitute teachers will be excluded.

The bill must be passed by the Italian parliament before it goes into effect.

Teachers’ unions say they will continue their protests until the plan is dropped. The next strike is scheduled to take place on May 12.

Thousands of teachers also held a similar strike on April 24.

The country spends only 4.9 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on education and falls below the average of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s standards with respect to mathematics, reading and science.

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