'Masterly' Teachers Kicked Out of School, Minister: 'Risk for New School Year'

The complex and in some ways all-Italian story of the teacher training graduates begins to impact the real lives of the protagonists of this story, namely the teachers. “We need a very clear law that establishes what should be the fate of those who graduated with a teacher's degree up to 2001-2002,” explained Marta Borghese, the lawyer of a teacher from Salerno with a teacher's degree, who has since been excluded from the exhaustion lists (Gae) following a ruling by the Court of Appeal of Salerno, and is therefore facing dismissal. Education Minister Marco Bussetti had his say on the affair, answering a question time in the Chamber, speaking of "a situation that risks concretely jeopardizing the start of the new school year". In any case, he clarified, thanks to the inclusion of an ad hoc provision in the Dignity decree, 120 days will be available to execute the sentences. It all started with a ruling by the Council of State (no. 11 of December 2017) which definitively clarified that possession of a teaching diploma alone, even if obtained in the 2001-2002 school year, does not constitute a sufficient qualification for inclusion in the Graduatorie a Esclusione (Exhausted Rankings). In light of this jurisprudential principle, teachers' diploma holders will have to be removed from the Gae as and when the merit rulings come in, which will presumably conform to the decisions of the plenary session of the Council of State. The bitterness of the teachers is clear - about 7.500 in total - who risk losing their jobs like the teacher from Salerno, whose story was reported by 'Il Mattino'. “To think that a teaching diploma – lawyer Borghese observed – could be suitable for carrying out short-term substitute teaching and not for permanent teaching is paradoxical. Isn’t teaching always the same?” Meanwhile, today in the Chamber, Minister Bussetti expressed the hope that Parliament will approve, during the conversion of the decree, provisions to establish methods of execution of sentences on teachers' diploma holders, "to safeguard teaching continuity for the entire next school year, as well as to give a complete definition to the regulatory framework, possibly regulating specific recruitment procedures in compliance with the current legislation in the sector, without neglecting those who are in possession of the qualifications currently required for access to teaching in primary school". In the meantime, for weeks now, positions have been being taken by unions and politicians. Leu representative Nicola Fratoianni, author of the question to which Minister Bussetti responded today, was disappointed: "the proposed solution, with the 4-month derogation, certainly ensures the start of the school year, a positive fact, but it does not give any certainty about its conclusion". And if Snals-Confsal needs “a political solution”, Flc-Cgil speaks of an “undignified solution” for teachers, who were evidently waiting for a definitive answer. Maddalena Gissi, general secretary of Cisl Scuola, points the finger at "a very complex issue" and a measure - the one adopted yesterday by the Council of Ministers - "not a solution". Instead, for Pino Turi of Uil Scuola "we cannot limit ourselves to guaranteeing the orderly start of the school year, without giving answers, even if detailed and gradual, to the teachers involved". According to Antonio Iannone, senator for the Italian Democratic Party (FdI), "after much talk, the mountain has given birth to a mouse," given that "by October 2018, approximately 50 teachers will see their chances of remaining in their positions or becoming tenured vanish."