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School officials hold rally lamenting poor safety in Italian schools

Thursday, 31 October 2019 2:24 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 31 October 2019 2:30 AM ]

Max Civili
Press TV, Rome

Hundreds of school officials from across Italy gathered in the proximity of the Ministry of Education, University and Research's building to express their discontent at a number of issues regarding the Italian school system.

The main aim of the demonstration was to call on the current government to scrap two provisions that dates back to 1996 and to 2008, according to which school officials bear civil and criminal liability in case of injuries to students due to school infrastructure faults.

School officials lament they have no control over the budget when it comes to spending money for infrastructure improvements of public school establishments.

School officials also complain they are used as scapegoats when accidents occur in schools at the expense of students' safety.

Italy is among the European countries with the lowest investments in education, spending just about 4% of its Gross Domestic Product on public schools. According to the school officials, consecutive governments have introduced heavy education budget cuts in recent years, resulting in under-financed, poor-quality maintenance programs in the schools.

Earlier this month, Education Minister Lorenzo Fioramonti warned Italy's teachers are among the lowest paid in the European Union. On that occasion the Minister stressed the importance of giving value to the work of the teaching body, students and other staff.

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