Complaint by 14 excluded candidates: “Conflicts of interest and opaque corrections”. Relationships, exchanges of favors and “suspicious” tasks: the investigation into the maxi-competition in Campania
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A competition for school principals that risks turning into a legal case. Fourteen candidates excluded from the tests have filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor's Office Napoli, denouncing alleged favoritism, conflicts of interest and irregularities in the correction of the papers.
The competition, announced in 2023 to assign 34 positions as principals in Campania, is now under the scrutiny of investigators, while the political world is starting to mobilize with parliamentary questions.
Colleagues correcting colleagues: the suspicion of “favors”
Among the most controversial points of the investigation are professional and personal ties between examiners and candidates. Some examiners are said to have evaluated the work of colleagues with whom they had collaborated in the past, or even relatives. A striking case concerns the sister of a Neapolitan university rector: her essay was supposedly corrected by a collaborator of the same rector.
But that's not all. A candidate, currently a technical director in regional school offices, had been a commissioner in the 2017 competition for principals. Today, one of the candidates she promoted then sits on the commission that is judging her. A crossover of roles that raises doubts about the impartiality of the process.
“Rigged” Correction Grids? Doubts About Written Tests
"PDF documents filled out by hand, with deletions and overwriting. Unclear evaluation grids, where it is not clear which correction corresponds to which candidate". This is one of the excluded teachers, who accuses: "This opaque system undermines the credibility of the entire procedure". The hypothesis is that some scores were altered to favor certain participants.
Disabled Candidates Discriminated Against: “Lack of Assistance”
The complaint, as reported by Repubblica, also accuses serious omissions towards disabled candidates. A teacher, whose computer turned off during the test, was not entitled to a supplementary session.+ Another candidate, suffering from hemiparesis and visual impairment after a stroke, asked – in vain – to replace the written exam with an oral exam, as required by law. "After the test I ended up at Cardarelli in red code, with facial paralysis," she says. Now she has filed a complaint for personal injury.
Politics enters the field: questions to Minister Valditara
The affair has gone beyond the confines of the school world, landing in Parliament. The Greens, the Five Star Movement and Italia Viva have filed questions with the Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara, asking for clarifications on the alleged irregularities. Meanwhile, the excluded candidates are asking for the seizure of the documents and measures against those responsible.
While the 65 admitted to the oral exam (out of 165 initially) prepare for the final test on April 14, the competition risks ending up in the dock. With one question that remains open: how many of the alleged "favorites" will actually wear the tricolor sash?
Article published on March 29, 2025 - 10pm
It is truly incredible how people talk about favoritism in such an important competition for schools. Irregularities and conflicts of interest must be verified, otherwise the credibility of the entire educational system is undermined.