From the next school year, schools in Campania will be able to suspend lessons even at the end of Ramadan. In a few days it will be published calendar for the 2024/2025 school year and in the document that will be discussed in the regional council, there will be a very significant addition. «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. Every school, of every order and level, will therefore be able to add religious holidays such as the end of year celebration Ramadan in its calendar, if deemed appropriate and will be 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 and Merit on issues not within its competence” . The decision to add the words «religious holidays» it 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 end of Ramadan holiday, sparked numerous ongoing controversies.
«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”. This part, to tell the truth, is also present in the resolutions approved in previous years but this time it takes on a much more important value.
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 still crowded beaches and hotels such as Cilento and the Gulf islands. During the meeting 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 also allow Muslim students to celebrate the end of Ramadan. A choice that elicits an astonished reaction from the centre-right: «The councillor Forts it is a true natural disaster – clarifies the MEP Fulvio Martuscielloregional coordinator of Forza Italia – La Campania region interprets Autonomy for its own use and consumption. This way we will attract immigrants from all over Italy.”
The school calendar is drawn up by law Campania region. Each resolution, in addition to the national holidays provided for by the relevant state legislation and Sundays, provides for the suspension of educational activities for the Commemoration of the deceased on 2 November, 23 and 24 December, 27 and 28 December, 30 and 31 December 2024 and from 2 to 4 January 2025 for the Christmas holidays; and again 3 and 4 March 2025 for the Carnival holidays; from 17 April to 19 April 2025 and 22 April 2025 for the Easter holidays; on 26 April 2025 for the Liberation Day long weekend; on May 2nd and 3rd for the May 1st long weekend.
The celebrations of 27 January, Remembrance Day, 10 February Day of Remembrance of the Foibe victims, and 19 March Legality Day, established by the Campania Region in 2012 in memory of the killing of Don Peppino Diana, have been confirmed. Each school, by virtue of scholastic autonomy, can however add another three days and this time there are religious holidays. The first day of school in Campania is scheduled for Thursday 13 September 2024, and ends on Saturday 7 June 2025 for primary and secondary schools and 30 June 2024 for nursery schools, for a total of 203 days.
