Relentless fight against diploma mills. Ministry inspectors of Education in action even on the day of the first final exam. In the Salerno area, the spotlight is on the phenomenon of “diploma tourism”. An intense day of work for those designated to guarantee the administrative regularity of work in the private institutions of the vast provincial territory. The investigation that led to the opening of the process of revoking the equal status of a higher institute brings out other details. In the first day of state exam, according to what we learned from Morning, land inspections continued unabated on the Ministry’s own instructions. «The peer reviewers were asked for and provided us with clarifications even on the first day of the test», says an inspector. Clarifications. Cards and authorizations. Viewing of registers. Civic education curricula. Clarifications on the implementation of school-work alternation courses. Analysis of the attendance registers and documentation relating to the admission files for the high school diploma of some candidates, originating from different areas of the country. According to what we learn from sources, the commission presidents sent to the private schools did not report any “major irregularities” on the first day of the test. «But the focus is also very high on flows from outside the province and on the maturation of previous training credits»: confesses a source. In reality, according to what transpires from the investigations coordinated by the ministry, the candidates of some private institutes in Campania, including Salerno (those where the incredible jump in enrollments occurs between the fourth and fifth year) come from all over Italy, fueling the ” diploma tourism”. Up until now, the outward tickets of this “diploma tourism” have mainly had as their final destination South.
THE NUMBERS
The record is recorded above all in our provincial territory where the record of 40% of graduates in private schools has also been recorded this year. In fact, in the South there are 40,837 students enrolled in private high schools, 9,760 are in the Salerno area. But let’s return to the 2024 maturity and its wave of equal candidates. From the analysis of the records of the commissions of the Ministry of Education, it is clear that it is Pagans the center where more candidates are registered than the equal ones, there are exactly 1,079, with 3 crowded commissions of 64, 60 and 61 candidates to examine. TO Lower Nocera there are 564 candidates in the joint competitions, with 3 crowded commissions of 68, 67 and 60 candidates to examine. TO Sant’Egidio del Monte Albino there are 311 equal candidates, a Sarno 250, ad Angri 169. In the capital the phenomenon of private high school graduates is more limited: there are just 341 candidates enrolled in 3 private private schools in Salerno. But let’s return to the administrative investigation which also involved private schools in Campania, and therefore also in Salerno. Among the most serious irregularities that emerged from the inspections is the activation of multiple collateral fifth classes. Translated: there are hundreds of students enrolled in the fifth year and from zero to a few dozen in the previous classes. Where do these students come from if they weren’t there in their second, third or fourth year? The creation of ad hoc fifth classes just to address the final exams is among the main irregularities detected by the inspectors. Furthermore, students residing outside the region are enrolled in the fifth class. Among the suspicious activities there is also failure to comply with the obligation to attend at least three quarters of the annual number of lessons. The province of Salerno, where this year there is a record number of internal candidates for private schools, 6,700, has taken the first harsh measures.
Since when, the barrage of ministerial checks would have affected a total of 6 private schools in Salerno. While for one school some irregularities were found for which it was necessary to initiate a measure to revoke the status of private school.
