TREVISO – They help classmates who have arrived from abroad who do not yet speak Italian well and those who are fragile or have special educational needs. In the middle schools of the Coletti comprehensive institute in Treviso, the students directly lend a hand. Tutor studentsthey were renamed.
After collecting the applications, fifteen young people were selected. And the impact is anything but secondary in an institute with a quota of foreign students that fluctuates between 30 and 40 percent, without prejudice to the fact that the percentage is “inflated” by those who do not have citizenship but were born and raised in Italy. The project is financed by the Treviso Rotary club.
INTEGRATION AND INCLUSION
«Activities are going well – explains the principal Angela Ferraro – there are important advantages in peer education, which translate into greater integration and inclusion». The class coordinators manage the interventions. In addition to the general activity, tutor students can join their classmates perhaps before a task or a test. In most cases within the same class. But there is no lack of help between different sections either. In 80% of cases we work on literacy. That is, we try to ensure that those who have arrived from other countries learn Italian, or strengthen it, by speaking directly with their classmates. For the remaining 20%, however, students with special educational needs.
«It’s about a very important project, of which we are proud – underlines the manager – certainly which, at the same time, highlights the fact that the school is not allocated all the resources it would need”. The reference is not only to support teachers. Pupils arriving from abroad, for example, by law must be included in a class even if they do not speak a single word of Italian. Without any specific support intervention being formally envisaged for this reason. In short, each school makes its own.
RESOURCES
Ferraro, however, is against the idea of introducing a cap for foreign students. «The real point is that the ministry has not yet allocated any funds to facilitate the insertion process”, he makes clear. The Coletti comprehensive institute, among other things, can also count on the School of Peace carried out in the afternoon by volunteers from the Sant’Egidio community. After Santa Bona, this year it was also activated in San Liberale. “There are wonderful volunteers – says the principal – which create moments in which friendships and discussions are built and time and space are shared. All for free. I will never stop underlining it.”
DISABILITIES
The situation is similar regarding the idea of differential classes for pupils with disabilities, which has been at the center of great controversy in recent weeks following the exit of General Roberto Vannacci. «Italy is at the forefront on this issue. We must move forward, overcoming the difficulties, not going back – concludes Ferraro – the topic could be approached differently only with regard to children with serious problems that lead to aggression and violence. In these cases one could perhaps also think of other contexts. But the point lies at most in the danger, certainly not in the disability.”
