• Azzolina: "Open school is not a risk, closed school is"

  • Azzolina insists: "We must do everything to keep schools open"

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November 18, 2020

"This Executive moves from the solid conviction that the right to health and the right to education of our female students and our students are not in opposition. The decisions we have taken, in recent months, all go in this direction".

The Minister of Education, Lucia Azzolina, said this in question time.

"We have not invested, using 325 million euros, only in the furnishings that will remain in the Italian school as a heritage, enriching it. Overall, more than 3 billion have been allocated for the start of the school year alone", he continued.



"In tackling the crisis, the ability to spend on innovation has accelerated, starting from the need to strengthen the internet connection and distance learning tools, with particular regard to ultra-broadband, to leave no one behind back ", continued the Miur owner.

"We have defined - within the Committee for ultra-broadband - a specific" School Plan ", for over 400 million euros, to enhance the connectivity of schools, support structural costs and meet connectivity costs for 5 years , bringing a capacity of 1 GB per second to 35,470 school buildings. We are working hard to recover in a short time the ground lost over the years. Years of cuts, referring to seasons that the Italian school is in a hurry to forget, because they represent a wound too big for the school community. With the decree-law n.137 / 2020, article 21, a further 85 million euros have been allocated for 2020 which will be used by schools to purchase digital devices and tools for the connections to be provided on loan for use to less well-off students I have already signed the allotment decree and the resources are already available to the schools to be used according to their needs.

A similar allocation of 85 million - provided by the "Cura Italia decree" - was used, last school year, by 8,223 educational institutions to purchase 211,469 digital devices and to provide connectivity to 117,727 students who were without them.

To these resources must be added the investments of the Structural Funds, over 89 million for the purchase of digital devices and tools and 147 million for educational supports and kits, thanks to which schools have been able to purchase a total of over 430,000 digital devices so far.

"I can assure - concluded the minister - that we are investing resources and working not only for today but also for the future, for a new school: open, cohesive, supportive and innovative and above all inclusive".

92.58% of the professors had digital training


"I believe that digital education today represents an opportunity and a challenge to rethink the school of the future. In this sense, the resources invested for integrated digital teaching - under the National Digital School Plan and on the PON resources - they amount to 413.9 million with which 34,183 authorized projects have been financed ", Azzolina then said.

"The use of innovative teaching methodologies cannot ignore adequate training of teachers and school staff with respect to new technologies, also to capitalize and enhance the experiences and skills acquired during the suspension of face-to-face teaching. launched in the previous months, the Government has allocated specific resources dedicated to the training of school staff on integrated digital teaching, involving over 572 thousand teachers. More than 2/3 of the total ", continued the minister.

"We also promoted the" Formare al Futuro "program, curated by Future Labs, polo schools for digital training, which made it possible to train over 8,000 teachers online in the two summer months through 97 training initiatives. The program is continuing with many other courses. Within the year the new platform dedicated to lessons will be active. Nor should the important work carried out by the territorial training teams be underestimated. integrated digital teaching. In fact, on the basis of the surveys carried out by the Ministry, 92.58% of teachers were trained precisely by digital animators and by the innovation team in their own school and 21.1% thanks to the activities carried out on territories from the training teams. Similar positive signs can be seen from the use of the national Sofia platform and from the examination of the purchase

you by teachers with their Card. In recent months we have faced the health emergency trying to take advantage of opportunities: the acceleration of investments in innovation and digital training are a demonstration of this ".

I work to avoid unilateral closures


"My daily work is aimed at avoiding recourse to unilateral solutions, which in many cases risk accentuating early school leaving and the forms of inequality and gap which, instead, it is our primary duty to counter. of the cases we had to witness the disorientation and despair manifested by families, social forces, school leaders and all staff, with reference to the provisions contained in some regional ordinances "continued the Minister of Education. "I hope, renewing the appeal formulated by the highest institutional officials in our country, that the institutions will collaborate, with a sense of proportion and great responsibility".