Pnrr, towards school 4.0
The intervention of Francesco Provinciali, former teacher, school director and inspection director of the Ministry of Public Affairs and MIUR – Juvenile Judge of the Juvenile Court of Milan
The report of the Undersecretary to the Presidency Roberto Garofoli to the Council of Ministers of 26 May last mentioned some paths on which the Government intends to move in order to present a school model defined as 4.0, in line with the Decree Law PNRR / 2-bis published in the GU n. ° 100 of 30/4 and now under discussion in the Chambers, to adhere to the EU requests for innovation of the training system and to allow access to European funding from the Recovery Fund – Next generation EU.
Ambitiously, the report updates the June objectives for the country's transformation plan, in all 30 of which 18 are defined as "achieved" and concerns all the Ministries: in the background the ecological conversion and the digital transformation plan of the PA
In the field of education, the career of teachers was reformed with the aforementioned Law Decree with the definition of new recruitment and training systems.
A ministerial decree is also envisaged for the adoption of the School 4.0 plan in order to promote the digital transition of the Italian school system to create innovative schools, new classrooms and laboratories, starting from the transformation of 100,000 classrooms into innovative learning environments and the creation of laboratories for the new digital professions in all second cycle schools.
After two years of pandemic and DAD in fits and starts, the labor suffered by all the institutions between rules, prescriptions, prohibitions, prophylaxis, infections, masks and wheeled benches ended up in the pulp, we would have been satisfied with some solid reassurance on the restart in September of the 'school year 2022/23 which will inevitably have to deal with the usual problems: shortages of staff, delays in appointments, chicken coop classes, disabled people without support, growing double bureaucracy by adding that of the ministerial circulars to that of the designers of the autonomy school . Instead, a new organization is emerging in the suffocating plethora of existing ones: the "Higher Education and Continuing Education School", which will work alongside the existing General Directions and Departments, will have to coordinate with the local schools and will make use of the advice of INDIRE and INVALSI. The usual Italian recipe in a bureaucratic style and with many sweet and sour ingredients that establishes new decision-making centers rather than simplifying and rationalizing the existing ones. With a lot of President, general secretary, steering committee and international scientific committee. The Higher Education School should take care of the initial, ongoing and permanent training of the school staff, implemented in advance through remote courses, webinars, zoom platforms entrusted to external bodies of self-styled experts who will have to update those who work in the school without having they have passed the screening of a test usually required of the trainers themselves. A jumble of biblical dimensions is looming between courses of all kinds, certificates issued at the end of distance theoretical lessons, quizzes and final evaluation tests, according to general directives of the instituting National School, to be declined in the agreements that the individual institutes will negotiate with the Bodies and the local institutions: in short, everything and more. It will take a solid parachute for the users of the students to drop the flood of theoretical schemes, flow charts, acronyms, inevitable anglicisms in their daily school reality. It is not clear who will be entrusted with the control and verification of the efficiency-effectiveness of this pharaonic and complex apparatus, within the concept of "productivity of the school public service": once in schools there were inspectors, now they are a race on the road. of extinction, after some ministers began to downsize those who had won the competition for access to the inspection function, to replace them with 'yes man' of proven faith, appointed with the spoil system. Quality is easy to praise, there are many ways to attribute it to oneself in a self-referential way and make it competitive in a system where the hierarchies of the ministerial bureaucracy intersect in its autarchic waste (regional directorates and former supervisory offices that change their name every year) and innovative inputs generated by individual institutes. But it is clear that if there is no internal body and expert in technical control, everything becomes random and indemonstrable: in fact, the paralyzing bureaucracy and the innovation generated by the application of unproven theorems produce an unmanageable and often an end in itself design babel. The results are then obtained when, after completing their studies, the students impact with the skills required by the world of work. An old worry of CENSIS President Giuseppe De Rita that is worth taking into consideration, given the intangible results of this "school of words".
All this gigantic organizational schedule that should manage initial training and updating in service ends up generating a type of pedagogical culture without anticipation of feedback.
We have read the disasters that this "system" (which has been in place for years) produces in the Save the Children Report which indicates that one out of two students at the end of lower secondary school (former middle school) is unable to understand this. that reads. And this is a big trouble for the school but also for the families: who should they turn to to ask for explanations and explanations on this scholastic failure if the whole apparatus of the educational system is armored in the defense of itself?
Then there is the question of staff recruitment (teachers and ATA): on 30 May the main national unions had called a strike on this aspect. They would like the restoration of entrance "corridors" on the sidelines of the competition route, the only one that allows a selection worthy of the name. It is known that in the competition commissions for access to school roles, subjects with dozens of spelling, syntactic and grammatical errors are corrected and oral tests are listened to at the limits of elementary school. If we want school to return to being a serious matter, we must dry the tears of those who would like to access ope legis only for precarious seniority: even the unions should do their utmost to ensure that those who sit in the chair do not ask for commitment and sacrifices in the study to the pupils without first applying this recommendation to themselves.
The new methods of recruiting school staff envisaged in the NRP seem to pursue the most selective way of examining the competition even if the complex system of training credits appears cumbersome.
At the same time there is a parallel discussion on the contractual renewal of teachers and ATA: the last national contract dates back to 2016/18. An average monthly increase of 50 euros net is assumed, which frankly makes all the previous discourse on the imaginative school of excellence a house of cards, so humiliating is the economic consideration offered.
It is worth remembering that the OECD not only reports the delays in the Italian school system but also (together with other institutions) the fact that our school staff are the worst paid in Europe.
Frankly, a shame that has been going on for years, ever since the teaching profession was rhetorically described as "a mission". This vulnerability must be overcome by recognizing the social role that teachers play: the training of the new generations on which the future of the country is based.
A decent salary must be established and adhering to the standards of the most civilized countries: professionals of the Italian school have always not received adequate remuneration and this vulnus must be considered when talking about the requisites that are postulated for school 4.0.
Almost half a century after the 'Delegated Decrees' a serious verification is expected for a certified quality leap.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/pnrr-verso-la-scuola-4-0/ on Sat, 11 Jun 2022 05:50:06 +0000.