Parents and students demonstrate in Italy against school closures

Dozens of students, parents and teachers gathered in front of the Italian Chamber of Deputies to protest against the closure of schools in various parts of the country from Monday, due to tightening restrictions to control coronavirus infections.

The Italian government on Friday approved a decree reinforcing preventive measures infections from March 15 to April 6, and this, among other things, imposes a gentle containment for all regions which have a weekly incidence of 250 infections per 100,000 inhabitants.

Since Monday, ten regions and the autonomous province of Thirty They will be blocked, a measure that will affect some 40 million Italians. The measure requires schools and non-essential businesses to be closed, although it is possible to go out for reasons of work, health and need, while factories will remain open.

A few seven million students of all ages will have to stay home and take distance education, a problem for working families.

Half the country will be in this lockdown from Monday, while the rest will apply mid-level restrictions: schools will be open but high school students They will be able to go to class without exceeding 75% of the capacity.

// Italy is the first European country to produce the Sputnik V vaccine

The island of Sardinia, which has practically no restrictions, has also opted for this measure for its classrooms.

Already since Monday March 8, around 5.7 million students were at home, in the three regions that were then in the “red zone” (Campania, Basilicata and Molise), but also in the region of Lombardy, where only kindergartens were open, to a large extent Emilia Romagna, in the middle of Piamonte; and in Friuli-Venezia Giulia Yes Market, in the case of middle and high schools.

From Monday, the rest of the students from the confined areas will join, although face-to-face classes are guaranteed for students with disabilities and special educational needs.

Faced with this situation, the collective “Priority to school”, which brings together students, families and teachers, this Sunday organized the demonstration in Rome to demand that the return to class be guaranteed in complete safety.

Cristina Tagliabue, one of the promoters of the movement, underlines in an interview published by the “Corriere della Sera” that “unlike last year, this time there was no debate on alternative positions” and that the closure of schools is a problem for students and working parents.

The Italian government has approved a 290 million euro aid package to facilitate paid parental leave for those who have to stay with their children at home due to school closures and provide grants of up to 100 euros per week for the hiring of babysitters in the case of the self-employed, health workers and law enforcement.

But Tagliabue believes that this is not enough: “They take for granted that families and women can take care of everything, that it is enough to opt for teleworking, and it is a pity that at the end of ‘one year we go back to square one, sacrificing education and the least protected jobs ”.

Source: EFE