Students march against Renzi reforms

(ANSA) - Rome, October 10 - Thousands of students marched across Italy Friday against Premier Matteo Renzi's planned school reforms.
    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.
    In Naples, rowdy protesters let off firecrackers and shouted: "You'll never have us the way you want us".
    As well as targeting education more towards 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.