Invalsi tests at risk of strike in Turin schools. The cross tests began this week in all second and fifth grades of elementary school, yesterday the Italian test took place. But the grassroots union Cub School reports hundreds of emails and phone calls from teachers who intend to join the «Invalsi function strike» hey Cobas they announced a day of abstention from work on May 9thdate of the mathematics test.
«In recent days we have been contacted by teachers from all over Italy who want to join and therefore ask for clarification on the so-called “functional strike”», he reports Giulia Bertelliprovincial coordinator Cub Scuola.
«In practice this type of strike consists in not administering the test to one’s students or in not tabulating the test, that is, not putting it into a system».
Introduced in 2004, the tests of National System for the Evaluation of the Education System (Invalsi) aim to evaluate the level of preparation of the students every year. But they sparked controversy from the start. «Many teachers think that they are a waste of time and feel cheated: on the one hand they are asked for a certain type of teaching and on the other they are evaluated with cross tests – adds Bertelli -. This year there is one more reason to strike, given that the new one has been introduced “indicator of fragility”a sort of filing that we also reported to the Privacy Guarantor.”
Among the signatories of the complaint there is also the Cobas union, which it is no coincidence that he called the meeting the general school strike for May 9th. “We have chosen a day during which the harmful, as well as useless, Invalsi quizzes will be held in primary school, which we have contested since their first introduction also in other school levels”, write the Cobas in a statement. «The detailed analysis of the tests confirmed what we already stated in 2004. Every year the Invalsi reports give us substantially unchanged results and the gaps between the North and the South of the country remain significant. This means that twenty years of surveys have not served to improve teaching.”
Instead of administering the tests, Cobas Torino will be in garrison under thePiedmont regional school office. Not only against the Invalsi, but also against the differentiated autonomy considered “destructive for the school”.
