There has been a fair amount of street protest in recent weeks over changes to the Italian education system introduced by the minister Mariastella Gelmini (pictured as an antidote to the awful picture of Jacqui Smith and her ID card in the previous post). A student was injured in a recent confrontation with police.
In fact it is the protesters who are the conservatives here. They want the system to remain the same. But it cannot. Education, particularly in the south, has been one of the worst pork barrel areas of Italian politics. Jobs have been handed out in return for favours. Like in so much of the Italian state apparatus, there are far too many teachers and they are badly paid. Gelmini’s proposal is a reduction of some 87,000 through natural wastage, a single teacher per class at primary level and a bonus of 7,000 euros for the best teachers.
Interestingly, Italian primary school children are ahead of most of their European counterparts, but by the time they finish secondary school they are behind. There is no Italian university in the world’s top 100. The reason is the kids are taught by rote, which works well at primary level, but later on they should start being taught to think for themselves and this doesn’t happen. A typical university lecture would be the professor reading from his own book and not accepting questions.
There is much to do, but Ms Gelmini has made a start.
In fact it is the protesters who are the conservatives here. They want the system to remain the same. But it cannot. Education, particularly in the south, has been one of the worst pork barrel areas of Italian politics. Jobs have been handed out in return for favours. Like in so much of the Italian state apparatus, there are far too many teachers and they are badly paid. Gelmini’s proposal is a reduction of some 87,000 through natural wastage, a single teacher per class at primary level and a bonus of 7,000 euros for the best teachers.
Interestingly, Italian primary school children are ahead of most of their European counterparts, but by the time they finish secondary school they are behind. There is no Italian university in the world’s top 100. The reason is the kids are taught by rote, which works well at primary level, but later on they should start being taught to think for themselves and this doesn’t happen. A typical university lecture would be the professor reading from his own book and not accepting questions.
There is much to do, but Ms Gelmini has made a start.
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