The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, “appreciates the work of the teaching staff” of the Iqbal Masih of Pioltello, the institute that ended up at the center of controversy for having decided to suspend lessons at the end of Ramadan. “I have received and read your letter carefully”, writes the head of state, referring to the letter sent to the Quirinale by the school’s vice-principal, Maria Rendani, who had invited him to visit the institute in recent days. «In thanking you, I would like to tell you – continues Mattarella – that I greatly appreciated you, just as – beyond the single episode, which was actually of modest importance – I appreciate the work that the teaching staff and the institute bodies carry out in fulfilling a precious and particularly demanding task”, concludes the President of the Republic. However, the criticism does not abate, reaching Parliament again where Fratelli d’Italia has announced a question to the Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara to find out what he intends to do now.
During the inspectors’ visit on 18 March, the school board also reiterated in a statement, «some irregularities were found in the resolution on the school calendar, namely the fact that four days of suspension of lessons were foreseen compared to the maximum of three days” that could be decided by the school, that the Region’s resolution does not provide for the possibility of bringing forward the start of lessons to compensate (which they had chosen to do in Pioltello) and furthermore “the absence of express didactic motivations” . Hence yesterday’s decision, again by the School Council, to give up two of the planned holiday days (Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th April) instead confirming the closure on the 10th for Eid al Fitr and on Friday 26th April, the day after the Liberation.
This decision, the teachers had made known, was taken with the sole “educational and non-religious” motivation, linked – as had already been explained previously – to the numerous foreseeable absences of the students. It was a choice «born spontaneously within us, on the basis of reasons that we believe are consistent with the right to education and instruction, with the Italian Constitution and which originates from the consideration made by the Teaching Body» explained by the Council of the institute announcing that on May 21st for the World Day of Cultural Diversity the school will organize a dialogue “on the themes of inclusion, interaction between cultures and comparison between religions”.
