by Jeremy Quinton
Home >> Education - who needs it?
One such story running in Europe just now, is that of the moves by the Italian government to make huge cuts in its education budget. The cuts will affect all levels & ages of the education system – students, teachers & university lecturers alike. The government is run, again, by the man the BBC describe as “the perma-tanned” Silvio Berlusconi – “one of Italy’s most colourful figures”. Not many countries, democratic ones at least, can claim to have leaders who are internationally described as being as charismatic as their top criminals.
At the end of October the Italian government passed a school reform law, with 162 senators voting in favour and 134 against. Both before and since then, huge demonstrations have been taking place across Italy to protest against both the decision, and the way in which the Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini has pushed the reform package through without any consultation with those parties affected.
In Italy, primary school children currently spend 40 hours a week in school, and receive academic tuition from three different teachers specialised in the different subjects they teach. Starting from next year they will go to school for only 24 hours and will have only one teacher for all the subjects, finishing school at 12.30. Many of the implications are clear – which subjects will cease to be taught? Where will kids go after school? How will parents cope with the extra logistical & financial constraints of looking after their kids? Another concern is the introduction of a 10-point grading system to evaluate not school & exam work, but pupils’ behaviour.
Apart from the direct & immediate changes that the package will bring about, some estimates say that 160,000 teachers stand to lose their jobs in the primary sector alone. Critics say that the changes are the result of Berlusconi’s plans to axe the public education system and favour a private one.
Heading over the boot of Italy & into Greece, it was Plato who once said that
The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.
Within only hours of writing this, out west across the Atlantic the future course of the USA, some say the planet is being decided. What importance will the 44th president of what’s still the most powerful economic & political force on the planet give to educating the youngest people?
Not long ago colleague Dónal asked in the title of an article “ What’s education for? ”
A good question.
But can anyone in a position of power actually deliver a coherent answer?
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Posted on http://www.weeklyletter.com at 2008-11-06 09:00:00 +0100
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What easy is watching from the sidelines!!
Instead of describing this guy as “the perma-tanned”…, I’d describe him as “the f¨¨¨ed-tanned president”.
Sometimes I feel indignant when I read /hear this type of comments from stupid and uncultured people. This f¨¨¨ed tanned guy should think about the real problems of Italian citizens instead of doing critical things that affecting million people.
I’ve just read the comment and maybe I should have written after 10 minutes of meditation, but this type of guys pisses me off!!!
I hope all of you have a lovely weekend!!
Take care!
P.D.- Jeremy, you know I’m a polite person, aren’t you? :-)
Policy on education is something that irritates me in every country, be it my own, the U.S., where I live, Spain, or another, such as Italy. It seems that decisions on education are never made by teachers or students, or even parents for that matter. Decisions and changes in education come about arbitrarily, mostly with the budget in mind. Modern governments make the mistake of cutting back on funding for education when the education of a country’s youth precisely is what guarantees success for the country’s future!
And this goes across party lines. I pay attention to the politics of both Spain and the U.S. and in the past, say, ten years, I have not seen one bit of change or “reform” that I actually liked or agreed with. There are so many things wrong with education in both countries. Maybe someday a real teacher will become the Education minister/secretary. Maybe someday university students will put forth decent arguments instead of absurd demonstrations that solve nothing. I hope I get to see true education reform in my lifetime.
And, indeed, what are students going to do after 12:30? I suppose the Italian babysitting sector is thrilled about the change…
I think one of the best educational establishments I have ever read about is Summerhill. This is their policy statement
To provide choices and opportunities that allow children to develop at their own pace and to follow their own interests. Summerhill does not aim to produce specific types of young people, with specific, assessed skills or knowledge, but aims to provide an environment in which children can define who they are and what they want to be.
and this is their website
http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/
Dear Wesley,
Italian university students are actually putting forth many decent and grounded arguments, and not only them: university researchers, lecturers, professors, and technicians are doing the same. But the government doesn’t care. They just ignore our arguments and our proposals. The absurd demonstrations may not solve anything, but at least they are raising awareness in the public opinion. People who have nothing to do with it do not know what the whole issue is about, and believe what Berlusconi says about it: that students and lecturers are protesting because they are “fannulloni”, meaning that they do nothing in their lives. This is not true. We are fighting for our rights. And at least people now are wondering “Why are they so pissed off? It can’t be simply because they are fannulloni”. People are getting interested in it. They see us having lectures in the squares and listen to us. The newspapers are talking about our protests. This is positive, even if we might not get what we want. At least people will not just listen to the version of the government.
Poll question
...a week after posting, and to the question “Who has MOST of the responsibility for a child’s primary education?”, the most popular answer was “a child’s parents” (10 out of 13 votes).More on that at the end of this post…
Your comments and some reflections
Ignacio (I know you’re a polite person….normally!)- you clearly would have a few things to say to Berlusconi if you sat down with him for a pizza! I’m not sure how much he’d be willing to listen though…given that by all accounts he’s deaf to the voices of millions of Italians…
I agree with Wesley’s comments when he states that it’s “the education of a country’s youth” which is what guarantees success for the country’s future. I guess nobody would really disagree though with the idea. Beyond whatever public education system is in place, surely a kid’s perception of his/ her country’s leader has a big effect on them in terms of what they grow up believing to be important.
The free-thinking Summerhills School that Dónal mentions is by far the exception rather than the rule in British education system (although given the definition of “system” as being “a set of connected items or devices which operate together” you could argue that Summerhills can’t, by that definition, be included as part of “the system” as a whole).
To see what the school, founded by Scotsman A.S. Neill in 1921, offers…check out the link in Donal’s post. Bear in mind as you read that Neill has been “recognised amongst the top 12 men and women who have influenced British schooling during the last millennium by the Times Educational Supplement (31.12.1999)”. Wow. For any readers who might not know, the T.E.S is widely considered as being “the” leading authority on the education scene in Britain.
The idea & values behind the school go beyond challenging the notion of what should be taught and how, to even asking us what it is that we should be offering kids anyway…and why.
My own view is that the education of our children and teenagers seems to be undervalued, under-financed, and even generally misunderstood in most parts of the world that I’ve heard or read about. Learning & teaching happen daily everywhere…but perhaps more passively than actively in many places. Just like physical, mental or (these days) emotional health…we’ve nearly all heard “how important” it is…but it’s seems to end there.
Italy
It’s sad to hear that in the year 2008, in a country as “big” as Italy, the government there appears to so blatantly undervalue what learning/teaching is about. It’s even sadder to hear that it’s ignoring the voices of those most closely involved, most directly affected, and – ironically and arguably of course – those best equipped academically & perhaps socially to express their views. If a government isn’t prepared to listen to these people, then who is it willing to listen to??
One of the comments posted asks the question about the effectiveness of demonstrations. How well do demonstrations serve their stated purpose? In this case, how much do they (also) fuel the stereotypical views that exists in many quarters of students (and teachers?!) – that they are “fannulloni” as Ilaria says…that is, “people who do nothing in their lives”? The decision here to protest surely says more about the government & its approach, than the different interest groups who’ve joined together to fight for their rights in a supposedly-democratic country. Nobody else on the planet can do it for them…certainly not, unfortunately, their own government.
...So back to the poll question, and the question of who carries the main responsibility for a child’s education or schooling. Surely a strong, loving parent – or two – can provide a child with far more in life, in nearly all ways, than any school timetable can?