School law protests to be held Saturday

(ANSA) - Rome, April 17 - Protests against the draft law reforming Italy's school system are gathering pace both inside the world of politics and on the streets.
    MPs from the opposition Ecological Left Party (SEL), the Five Star Movement (M5S) and the Northern League Friday expressed their concern over the bill to lower house speaker Laura Boldrini, with the SEL claiming the legislation "humiliates parliament" because it is being pushed through by the government and the League and M5S objecting to the bill being tied to the Budget law.
    On Saturday school teachers and students unions, the CGIL, CISL, UIL, Snals and Gilda, will stage a demonstration in Rome in the Piazza Santi Apostoli to reject the bill as it stands and demand deep changes in the legislation, union sources said.
    Organisers of the protest said it will represent "the real school system, the every day reality that lives directly through difficulties, discomfort and problems, putting into the field its resources, skills and passion to overcome them".
    Leaders of the national trade union federations are expected to deliver speeches at the rally "to reiterate forcefully the requests over which the school world has mobilised for weeks - no to models of authoritarian management that overturn principles of autonomy founded on collegiality, an immediate plan for hiring that ensures the stability of work for all the teaching staff and assistants employed precariously for years; staff adequate for needs; renewal of the contract that expired seven years ago; no to legal incursions on matters subject to contracts; the start of a strategy of strong investment in teaching and training," the protest organisers said.