What are GPSs? How to do them? What has changed?
THE EAGLE – The GPS is out: Big Cries for Substitutes. The provincial rankings for substitute teachers were released on May 20th, the biggest obstacle for every person who aspires to the role of teacher. The GPS are the system through which teachers obtain their assignments on the basis of a certain score achievable through titles and years of service whose operation has had more appeals and lawsuits in a year than the entire career of a successful paparazzo in the 90’s.
Every two years teachers are asked to update their scores and include 150 locations across schools, districts and finally the province. You start by placing, mainly, the schools in which you want to teach and then finish with the province so that if you really can’t reach the desired location at least you won’t spend a year unemployed. The results, whose importance is clear, are usually obtained at the end of August but last year the assignments in Rome – which would have started on Monday 11 September – arrived comfortably at 10pm on Friday 9 September.
The rule is as follows: if two teachers with different scores enter a specific location, the teacher with the highest score will have the job first. But if the teacher with the fewest points inserts it as first and the one with the most points as third or fifth, then the teacher with the most points will not get the job and will actually be skipped for the entire seat.
For example, I, who with 46 points had put Anzio as my first choice, got the job on my 149th preference while people with 33 points got the job I would have preferred.
To make the concept clear, think of the Fates, who according to mythology weave the thread of life for all of us, but add to the equation an unfortunate loss of the common eye and a considerable alcohol level.
The score of the GPS is assigned on the basis of certain titles which, like the Hogwarts stairs, like to change with each update. The late opening of this year has pushed many universities to bring forward the end of their courses to gain more students for the next cycles, in a race that rewards timing more than the quality of teaching. Think for example of the 30 CFU qualification courses and the TFA. While some universities have, according to many, improperly anticipated the discussion, others stick to ministerial times and consequently there will be people who will have more points than others, creating disparities that could compromise the ability of many people to work.
Another point of debate on GPS 2024 is the enabling of foreign qualifications.
In order to teach support in Italy there is a need to take a closed course which can be accessed via a competition called TFA. But many, who were unable to pass the tests to enter Italian universities, took a shortcut by relying on very expensive online and non-telematic universities which gave them the opportunity to specialize in Spanish universities without clearly having to follow the courses, something also denounced by Le Iene . Until this cycle, people specialized abroad were included in the first bracket but at the end of those specialized in Italy, from 2024 they will instead be inserted like a comb, like those who actually had to go to the office at least 2 days a week to follow dozens of hours of in-person lessons.
GPS have therefore become, for the majority of Italian substitute teachers, a system that does not reward merit so much as the ability to know how to get around ministerial lines. We can therefore only close the article by sending our best wishes to all the substitute teachers who are compiling them in these days.
