Sardinia, goodbye to 45 school autonomies: mayors and CGIL against the Region's plan

Outcry against the school sizing plan approved last December 22nd by the Regional Council. According to the draft circulating at the moment and which plans the school network for the year 2024-25, a total of 45 autonomies would disappear : mostly amalgamations of institutes that will be headed by a single head teacher who will have to coordinate the work of multiple schools. In Cagliari the historic names of the school Alfieri, Tuveri and Colombo should disappear : the first new name is that of the Istituto Comprensivo "Satta Spano De Amicis - Alfieri Conservatorio". Then there will be the "Randaccio - Tuveri Don Milani - Colombo" and then the "Giovanni Lilliu - Via Stockholma" school.

" In Sardinia we need everything except a reduction in school services and territorial facilities ", states the president of Anci Sardinia Emiliano Deiana . The Council, he continues, has implemented the national legislation by closing 45 autonomies, «but on December 28th we will present our text, with a few “dreamers' tinsel”, with a view to real institutional collaboration, and we will forcefully ask the Regional Council to discuss it and approve it without distorting its meaning. Otherwise it will not only be the fault of the national government if 45 independent schools close, but also of the Regional Council of Sardinia ." Deiana refers to a text presented last October 23 by Anci Sardegna to attempt, by approving a bridging law, to save all 45 autonomies at risk using the tools of the Constitution and the special Sardinian statute.

The attack of the regional CGIL and the FLC against the "serious attack on public schools" carried out by councilor Biancareddu was decidedly heavier. The regional council, we read in a note from the union, "lowers its head in the face of the impositions of the national government" by drawing up a school sizing plan that is "worse than the most dire predictions" .

«They claim to move forward with a plan that has no consensus, they should explain why they carry out acts contrary to the interests of the Sardinians which highlight the condescension towards inputs coming from Rome », declare the secretary of the CGIL Sardinia Fausto Durante together with the confederal secretary Francesca Nurra and the regional secretary of the Flc Cgil Emanuela Valurta , also recalling the protests of the Municipalities and the ANCI against the plan.

«In a clumsy attempt to defend himself – we read in the note from the unions – councilor Biancareddu admits the cuts and says that they are not closures, but this is an alibi to push through arbitrarily decided mergers between distant schools which will make attendance at the schools impracticable pupils in areas that already show signs of widespread social and economic hardship".

According to the CGIL, the Region has given up trying to assert its specificities and the prerogatives granted by the autonomous statute. «Other logics seem to prevail», concludes the union, which announces a «January of protest» , in the hope that the plan will not be ratified in the next steps foreseen in the Culture commission and then again in the Council.

The mergers and suppressions concern the south and north of Sardinia, the central part of the island is not affected. The municipalities affected are Cagliari, Quartu, Assemini, Capoterra, Sinnai, San Teodoro, Budoni, Oschiri, Monti, Osilo, Castelsardo, Sennori, Sorso, Usini, Ittiri, Sassari, Thiesi, Pozzomaggiore, Tempio, Alghero, Santa Teresa Gallura.

«It destroys the social fabric of Sardinia, the center-right must stop - is the appeal of the Sardinian parliamentarians of the Democratic Party Marco Meloni and Silvio Lai - A plan that breaks the precarious connection between the social infrastructure fundamental for the equality of citizens and to promote the possibilities of people and territorial communities to grow in prosperity, that is, the school, and the territory of Sardinia".

«Autonomous educational institutions go from the current 270 to 228: between suppressions and mergers, for entire territories the specter of depopulation induced by wrong public policies increasingly seems like an inevitable fate. We need to act immediately, and doing so is the responsibility of the centre-right in government, in Cagliari as in Rome - they attack -. Can you still approve the Democratic Party's amendment to the National Budget Law - for now rejected in the Senate - with which we have asked for a derogation from the criteria established at national level, in implementation of the principle of insularity recently inserted into the Constitution, so as to lower the threshold of pupils necessary to maintain school autonomy. It can decide, as Anci Sardegna requests and as all the mayors of our island request, to postpone the entry into force of the reform for a year, so as to allow the Region to fully exercise its powers on the matter or it can vote on the proposal to law presented in the Regional Council by the centre-left".

On the Aventine also a part of the centre-right with the group leader of the Sardinian Reformers in the Alghero city council, Alberto Bamonti : «The future of education in Sardinia is threatened by the recent school sizing plan, with a worrying focus on the Professional Center (IPSAR- IPIA) of Alghero. Our complaint is clear: we cannot allow the loss of the autonomy that has characterized many institutions in our region. Reducing the autonomy of such a prestigious hub would undermine not only its legacy, but also the future of those who wish to pursue a career in the professional sector."

(Unioneonline/L)