Italian students put on a
massive show of force Friday by filling the streets and squares
of the nation to protest against the educational policies of
Premier Matteo Renzi.
Sometimes joined by their teachers, the students
lambasted Renzi's reforms aimed at fostering greater meritocracy
in schools and universities and making an Italian education more
closely linked to the jobs market.
The protest, called by university and high-school
students' organisations, was aimed at achieving a "different
school, university and country," than the one envisaged in
business-friendly educational reforms, the manifesto of the
event said.
"We are the great beauty of this country and we can no
longer afford to live in precarious conditions where we're
stripped of our rights," it said.
In Rome, students staged a flash mob at the Colosseum,
unfurling a huge banner saying Hands Off Our Schools.
"There are 20,000 of us and we all say No to Renzi," they
shouted.
"Cuts are not good for a good education," another giant
banner read.
We Are The Good School, another one said.
The students were joined in the Italian capital by throngs
of temp teachers carrying giant papier-mache' pencils to
symbolise the importance of education, "which cannot be
destroyed by politicians".
Maria, a teacher who has been on short-term substitute
contracts for 16 years, told ANSA: "they want to turn students
into useful little robots for their economic schemes...we won't
stand for it".
In Milan, protesting students left a bag of manure outside
the Catholic University and spray-painted buildings with slogans
against the reforms, which aim to forge a stronger vocational
link between schools and universities on the one hand and the
business world on the other.
A student who gave her name as Carla said the reforms
would, among other things, "put a hell of a lot of pressure on
teachers, from their heads, as they have to shape up to these
new and wrong-headed meritocratic chalk marks.
"The teachers will be turned into guard dogs over us," she
added.
In Naples, rowdy protesters let off firecrackers and
shouted: "You'll never have us the way you want us".
A student who gave his name as Pino said "Renzi is trying
to privatise Italian schools by stealth," echoing an accusation
often leveled at previous, centre-right governments who fell
short of full-blown reforms because of massive resistance.
As well as tailoring education more on working-world
goals, Renzi has vowed to hire 150,000 teachers who have been on
temp contracts for years.
But the teachers taking part in Friday's protest said "we
don't believe him.
"What's he going to do, sack all the existing (permanent)
staff, and where's he going to get the money from," they
demanded to know.
According to the university and high-school organisations,
"more than 80,000 students have turned out across Italy".
As well as Rome, Milan and Naples, other towns that saw
large turn-outs were Turin, Florence, Palermo, Bologna and
Perugia.
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