Because we need to start from school to overcome inequalities
Speech by Alessandra Servidori, professor of labor policies, member of the Steering Council for programmatic activity in the field of economic policy coordination at the presidency of the Council
The Italian education system as a whole is facing evident criticalities that do not yet find structural responses, reforms and sustainable and ordinary investments in national and local policies to cope with them. School hardly contributes to removing inequalities despite having the goal of tackling educational inequalities, ensuring equal and non-discriminatory access to education and the development of the potential of every student.
The Pisa-OECD data, which analyze basic skills, are undoubtedly indicative of transversal learning deficiencies: 23.3% of young people aged 15 do not reach the basic level of Italian, 23.8% that of mathematics (OECD , PISA 2018 Results , OECD, Paris 2019, vol. I,). Alarming data persist on those who come of age without a diploma, the so-called early leavers of education and training, particularly in inland and southern areas of Italy; the same areas in which there are lower data in basic skills. Numerous testimonies from the territories of students, teachers, parents, confirm this scenario.
Other evidence is the intergenerational transmission and the geographical crystallization of inequalities. Family and socio-economic context are factors that have a profound and multicausal influence on the growth, learning and citizenship path of a student and a female student in school and education. By starting inequalities, the relationship between educational success or failure and income or job opportunity, school, associative and political participation, the well-being of the individual student and the community are considered together. Education and citizenship are inextricably linked to each other. Again from the OECD data analyzing the family of origin, we see, for example, that 37% of young people at an economic disadvantage are below the basic reading level, 14% more than the national average and 26% more than the youngest privileged; or that the educational qualification of the parents heavily determines that of the children: 82.2% of those who attend a high school have a parent with at least a diploma, a percentage that drops to 46.7% for those who attend a vocational school.
Linguistic and cultural barriers linked to conditions of economic vulnerability influence the educational path: the percentage of foreign students who are late in their studies compared to their age increases from one level of school to the next and reaches 58.2% of the those enrolled in the case of secondary school. The factors within the school that make it possible to reduce the conditions of vulnerability are many and range from the forms of teaching (from the knowledge and skills of teachers, from the use of participatory methodologies to democratic culture at school, from the quality of learning environments and spaces safe and open to dialogue, training opportunities or relationships with the territory), the structure of school cycles and guidance, from well-being at school, to participation in governance, knowing that elements relating to the family (income, housing, health, education of parents, social networks, etc.) and the territorial social and cultural context are equally crucial and require structural interventions precisely in coordination with the education system.
Strengthening the participation tools of students and giving value to a culture and a democratic practice in schools and, on the other hand, structuring an integrated and permanent guidance system, transversal and networked with the subjects of the territory, are factors that can clearly favor the contrast of inequalities and restart intergenerational mobility. School guidance policies are based on pathways that aim to strengthen the skills and knowledge necessary to independently face educational and career choices throughout the course of life. For this reason, guidance is one of the most popular methods in European education systems to prevent and combat early school leaving. In fact, abandonment is often linked to the difficulties encountered, especially by the most disadvantaged students, in the transitions between school cycles and in the management of choices. Precisely on this aspect, the guidance measures intervene.
School guidance is part of the European system of "lifelong guidance" defined at European level since 2000. The implementation of lifelong guidance measures has in fact been promoted through various policy acts and documents, both in the context of policies for education and training and in that of employment policies. The Italian guidance system is however characterized by a series of criticalities and structural problems: the absence of systematic and capillary interventions in schools throughout the national territory; the lack of teachers expressly dedicated to this activity; the lack of training on guidance issues; the presence of measures which, if not properly applied, can contribute to the reproduction of existing inequalities and to hinder social mobility.
On the other hand, to improve school guidance it is necessary: to focus on the training of the professionals responsible for providing guidance, whether they are dedicated figures or the teachers of the schools themselves; making guidance an integral part of the whole school path and not tying it exclusively to the transition phases; create an integrated territorial guidance system, with a visible presence both inside and outside the school, building and strengthening the educating community at the territorial level (community territorial pacts).
We consider that at the level of orientation strategies aimed at contrasting early school leaving, the importance of “integrated courses”, ie school-work training or professional-work training through practical experiences in companies or organizations, has been underlined. This type of experience, in fact, favors the construction of networks between the education system and the economic system, which can facilitate the transition to employment of young people (Capperucci, 2016).
Not only that, according to the indications of the OECD (2021), a type of more specifically professional orientation – which therefore also includes a component of contact with the economic realities of the territory – has particularly beneficial effects in a phase such as today, in which young people find themselves vulnerable due to the post-pandemic recession and, despite being qualified and ambitious, they are unable to access good jobs, also due to the lack of skills related to the professional world (due to lack of experience). Among the main factors that can hinder the implementation of guidance policies as tools to combat early leaving is the lack of awareness on the part of local authorities and school managers of the link between guidance and the success of the educational path (in this sense, therefore, guidance is not considered a priority) and the lack of staff dedicated to educational and professional guidance in schools (CE / Eurydice / Cedefop 2014).
And the solution of problems must be urgently addressed: transversal skills and the ability to adapt in an economy and a labor market characterized by a growing presence of new technologies and automation are increasingly important in professional contexts (Cedefop , 2021). For this reason, the provision of suitable guidance services is particularly important for young people (OECD, 2021).
In Italy the most evident problems are the failure to implement systematic and capillary interventions in schools throughout the national territory, linked to the lack of teachers specifically dedicated to this activity and the lack of specific training for teachers on guidance issues. In the current guidance system there are some measures (for example, the guidance advice) which, if not properly applied, can generate perverse effects in terms of reproducing existing inequalities and curbing opportunities for social mobility, thus leading to the frustration of potential and personal interests instead of their fulfillment. This risk is present despite the fact that in the ministerial guidelines on lifelong guidance of 2014 a system is outlined that provides for measures such as guidance teaching in school curricula, compulsory teacher training and the creation of an integrated guidance system in collaboration with others. actors of the territory. In practice, these guidelines have never been fully applied and guidance today in many schools is realized only in the hours dedicated to the Pathways for transversal skills and guidance (PCTO), with students carrying out internship periods and activities outside the school, or in informative moments (such as open days, school or university presentations) in correspondence with the transitions between school cycles or leaving upper secondary school.
In summary: we must focus on the training of all the figures in charge of providing guidance, whether they are dedicated professionals or the teachers of the schools themselves.
It is evident the importance of offering all those involved in guidance the resources necessary to effectively carry out this role, starting with adequate training in this regard, also in order to avoid the transmission of stereotypes or incorrect information. Making guidance an integral part of the school path is fundamental, and not to tie it exclusively to the transition phases and only to some information but to induce a reflective process, which starting from the personal needs and attitudes of each one must provide the tools to consciously face the choices with respect to their future. Dialogue, confront each other, seek vital and economic energies to promote the creation of an integrated territorial orientation system, with a visible presence both inside and outside the school, which brings together and mobilizes all public and private actors of the territory capable of make a contribution in responding to the guidance needs of young people, that is, the educating community, the family, economic actors in the area, as well as all public and private bodies that in various ways deal with guidance (schools, training institutions).
The NRP provides for the reform of the system with 250 million euros on active guidance in the school-university transition, providing for the introduction of training guidance for the fourth and fifth grades of upper secondary school in modules of 30 hours per year, for accompany students in their choice of university studies or further vocational training (ITS).
There is also an investment of € 250 million in active guidance in the school-university transition to increase the number of graduates and reduce the drop-out rate from university studies. It therefore means courses aimed at all students starting from the third year of upper secondary school, held by university teachers. The intervention is still partial as regards the concrete integration between training courses and economic realities of the territory to put ourselves on a par with other European realities, above all we must provide at the level of Miur and Regions to monitor the integrated virtuous realities to disseminate them on everything the national level.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/perche-bisogna-partire-dalla-scuola-per-superare-le-disuguaglianze/ on Thu, 05 May 2022 08:07:17 +0000.