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High school students hold rally in Rome against school system

Sunday, 22 January 2023 1:37 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 22 January 2023 2:02 AM ]

Max Civili
Press TV, Rome

Hundreds of high-school students have hit the streets of the Italian capital to rally against what they called "a school system in grave decay and at the service of companies and private interests.”

The protest took aim at a 2015 school reform named “The good school” by then Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. The reform radically transformed the Italian education system introducing measures, including granting more powers to principals, a new national recruitment process for teachers and obligatory work experience programs for high school students.

Students at the rally said it was also held to remember Lorenzo Parelli, an 18-year-old boy who was crushed by a metal bar while on a school training placement at a factory in Northern Italy, a year ago.

Recently, an international family caused a stir by saying they had to leave Italy due to the appalling conditions of the education system. While schools vary around the country, statistics show that educational standards overall are consistently below the EU average.

Italy is the one country in the EU that invests the least in public education. According to data by the European statistical agency, Eurostat, Italy allocated around eight percent of its public spending in this field in 2019, placing it last after Greece and below the EU average of over 10 percent.

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