schools will be free to close

From next school year, schools in Campania will be able to suspend lessons even at the end of Ramadan. In a few days the calendar for the 2024/2025 school year will be published and in the document that will be discussed in the regional council, there will be a very significant addition.

The analysis/Unresolved questions on the Pioltello case

«Individual educational institutions for justified needs will be able to make appropriate adjustments to the calendar, duly motivated and approved by the educational institution, and promptly communicated to families before the start of lessons» is written in the draft. So far everything is in line with past resolutions. But if last year the reason “tourist vocation of the area” was added as an example, this time the reason “religious holidays” will also appear. Each school, of all levels, will therefore be able to add religious holidays such as the end of Ramadan holiday to their calendar, if they deem it appropriate and are approved by the Institute Council. A clarification discussed in recent days in the Region together with the trade unions, who unanimously agreed that it was important to reiterate “the function of school autonomy and the inappropriate interference of the Ministry of Education on issues not within its competence”. The decision to add the words “religious holidays” was deemed “dutiful and necessary” by the unions, after the case of the Institute of Pioltello, in Lombardy, which had decided to grant a day off for the holiday at the end of Ramadan, sparked numerous controversies that are still ongoing.

THE DOCUMENT
«The educational institutions, in compliance with the annual number of hours foreseen for the individual disciplines and compulsory activities, may make appropriate adjustments to the calendar in particular» is written in the draft of the regional resolution which then specifies that one of the reasons may be «in presence of a significant student component belonging to different ethnic and/or religious communities”.

The wording added this year is only “religious holidays” placed in the first part of the document, in a section that contains examples of application. It is on the same line as the “tourist vocation of the area”, cases which also raised eyebrows last year, but are necessary in areas where in September there are crowded beaches and hotels such as Cilento and the Gulf islands. With the unions, there was talk of “reaffirming a right already inherent in school autonomy”, so that there are no doubts about choices approved by the school board. Campania schools will therefore be able to suspend teaching activities, without any obligation to make up for them, to allow Muslim students to celebrate the end of Ramadan. A choice that elicits an astonished reaction from the centre-right: «Councillor Fortini is a true disaster of nature – declares MEP Fulvio Martusciello, regional coordinator of FI – The Campania Region interprets Autonomy for its own use and consumption. We will attract immigrants from all over Italy.”

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