Rome, 18 June 2024 – War on ‘diploma factories’: is the slogan that led the inspections requested by the minister Giuseppe Valditara. Checks that concerned 70 private secondary schools in three regions, Campania, Lazio and Sicily. For 47 of these the regional school directorates, competent in the matter, have already started, in compliance with the rules on cross-examination, the procedures for revoking parity.
Giuseppe Valditara, Minister of Education and Merit
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Minister Valditara and the war on ‘diploma factories’
But what is meant by ‘diploma factories’? Simply put, it’s the schools that don’t follow the rules and that they guarantee the diploma too easily.
The schools subject to inspection were identified among those in which the phenomenon of a phenomenon was most evident in the previous school years abnormal increase in students enrolled in final classes compared to a small number of students attending the initial classes. The results of the inspections highlighted a widespread picture of irregularities which were examined by the regional school offices of Campania and Lazio and the Sicily Region. Furthermore, in a series of cases, the inspection panels promoted the reporting to the Guardia di Finanza, also thanks to the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Ministry of Education and Merit with the General Command, and to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for profiles of competence investigation.
Teachers without qualifications and subjects cancelled
The list of irregularities reported by the ministry outlines a truly critical and in some ways incredible picture: 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; lack of laboratories, of the agricultural company in the agricultural technical path, of kitchens and foodstuffs in the food and wine paths; 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; teaching staff without qualifications or even titles access to the teaching of the disciplines; 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 current provisions 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.
The words of Minister Valditara
“From this government no tolerance towards those who do not respect the law –declared Minister Valditara -. We reiterate our constant commitment to guarantee quality standards for all students, whether they attend state or private schools”. “For the first time in Italy they are taking the field concrete actions to protect legality in schoolswhich will be accompanied from the next school year by the legislative measures that we strongly support and approved by the Council of Ministers, measures designed to combat abuses and distortions in the bud and guarantee quality education in all institutions of the public system, of which the equality represent an important link”, concluded the minister.
