On the eve of the final exams, the government’s war on easy diplomas continues with the announcement of the conclusion of the extraordinary supervisory plan against the phenomenon of diploma mills, the private schools that allow you to obtain the desired piece of paper more easily and for a fee. «No tolerance towards those who do not respect the law – said the Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara today –. We reiterate our constant commitment to guarantee quality standards for all students, whether they attend state or private schools.”
The checks involved 70 private secondary schools in Campania, Lazio and Sicily. For 47 of these the regional school managements have already started the procedures for the revocation of parity.
In addition to the checks on the supervisory plan, the minister “promoted regulatory initiatives aimed at combating even more effectively the irregularities that have emerged from the ongoing inspection actions”. The reference is, among others, «to the obligation of the electronic register, to the limits on the establishment of collateral classes and to the rules for taking exams for multiple school years at the same time. The new measures were approved in the Council of Ministers as part of the Simplifications bill. The bill is soon to be presented to the Chambers and will be approved, according to the provisions of the Pnrr, by the end of this year”.
The irregularities
From food and wine institutes without kitchens to teachers without qualifications. These are some of the irregularities found in the so-called “diploma factories” during the extraordinary surveillance plan launched by the Ministry of Education and Merit. Among the “most serious and significant” ones that emerged from inspections in private schools, the Mim reports: “teaching staff without qualifications or even entrance qualifications for teaching the disciplines; lack of laboratories, of the agricultural company in the agricultural technical path, of kitchens and foodstuffs in the food and wine paths; insufficient number of classrooms to accommodate all the classes activated and/or insufficient furnishings in relation to the students enrolled; failure to respect the timetables of the disciplines of the fields of study and in some cases total elimination of some disciplines”.
And again: «absence of the civic education curriculum; operation of several collateral fifth classes with a high rate of students residing outside the region (up to 90%) of whom the domicile near the school is not declared for the purposes of regular school attendance; discrepancies in the hours of service indicated in the individual employment contracts compared to the work performance resulting from the class assignment documents; serious failure to comply with the provisions in force regarding suitability exams and supplementary exams; gaps and inconsistencies in the keeping of paper and electronic records which undermine the veracity of what is certified”.
Out of 70 schools, for 47 institutes the regional school managements have already started, as mentioned, the procedures for the revocation of the “equal” status.
