The times of Covid led the Italian Government rethink of a recovery plan to be carried out in as soon as possible.
The task force led by Vittorio Colao, former Vodafone chief, worked on several points of what is called “The Colao plan for schools”.
10 key actions detailed in 10 forms, each one with a specific reformation act and investment plan.
The first form si about renovating school infrastructures. That means, there is a sheer urge of investing on school infrastructures and facilities - not only for assuring the standard of safety but also (and above all) to guarantee the quality of the educational syllabus.
Check-up - Need analysis
The need analysis issues from some surveys carried out from Legambiente and Cittadinanzattiva coming to the result too many Italian schools were built in the 70s (42%, which is a relevantly high percentage, talking about infrastructures), often unsafe (60% didn’t have the safety certification for fire prevention) and not aimed at an efficient teaching (large classrooms equipped with the right furnitures, laboratories, common spaces, green spaces…).
Target (to be carried out within a decade)
The idea aims at:
- building 1000 new schools, according to the themes of sustainability (as planned by Agenda 2030) with the cooperation of engineers, teachers and psychologists. This means working together to redefine the spaces where students and teachers live, investing on the real needs for a better living in the spaces;
- developing a plan for supporting the buildings with services like canteens, gyms, laboratories, furniture and supplies necessary to an active and more productive school life;
- carrying out plans and processes of emergency maintenance of 5000 schools.
Money
For the first action costs are estimated in about €15 mln for each building (if we consider a standard school with 30 classrooms.
For the second action, costs are about €9 mln for each building.
For the third action costs are about €6 mln for each building.
Reflections
Such an investment is really important for more than a reason.
We can share Maria Montessori’s statement that we learn better if we live in a better context, with adequate spaces and the right tools and instruments.
The setting of a classroom and the adequacy of a school may play an important role in the educative system: school is where students and teachers spend much time and they need to feel ‘safe’ as well as ‘welcomed’.
We have to rethink the spaces and the places of teaching and learning, and this is a challenge that we cannot ignore.
If we really want to invest on schools, we have to do it starting from the infrastructures and facilities.
An old school with out-to-date facilities and in unsafe condition cannot grant the success of teaching, no matter how the teachers can play the role of super-heroes and super-heroines.
SWOT ANALYSIS
Strength: The need of investing of rethinking the places and spaces for learning; the cooperation of different stakeholders.
Weakness: A decade can be a very short term if the actions are not well planned and the schools where to invest are not clearly recognised.
Opportunities: Educational syllabus will receive a big push forward
Threats: The fight for grabbing bids and contracts (talking about tenders). Sadly this is an old Italian story.
HOW TO MANAGE
The plan could be a success if the whole Italian system agrees to support the idea, joining the different parties so to work together to avoid unclear processes related to bids.
The schools and the areas where to intervene must be studied and analysed in detail, asking for a participation of different stakeholders so to have a more complete need analysis.
Furthermore, there should be a concrete rewriting of the educational syllabus, related to the new appearance of the infrastructures.
Schools must be equipped with all the necessary facilities to have a better and more inclusive and motivating appeal on students and teachers as well.
And this, indeed, has to be connected with a new idea of school which shouldn’t be anymore the school of “Open the book at page…”
Angela Panzarella (02/08/1978), laureata in lingue e letterature straniere moderne (inglese e serbocroato) con indirizzo filologico letterario, un’ulteriore laurea in lettere (storia delle tradizioni popolari) presso La Sapienza di Roma, master in traduzione, abilitazione SSIS (A345/A346), master CeCLIL (Ca’ Foscari) e Metodologie CLIL nel XXI secolo (IUL Firenze), benemerenza in Filologia (Philology Sila Trophy, per il saggio “As You Like Her…”), expertise in bilingual education since primary years, dopo anni di docenza nella scuola secondaria di secondo grado, insegna inglese nella scuola primaria per la sperimentazione e il proseguimento dell’esperienza bilingue (IBI-BEI, istruzione bilingue, bilingual education, CLIL & technoCLIL) nella provincia di Milano. E’ formatrice riconosciuta dall’USR Lombardia (per corsi linguistici e metodologici CLIL, technoCLIL e webtools per la didattica) e certificatrice Cambridge Young Learners (International House) ed ESOL (Cambridge, International House, English Speaking Board). Referente per l’Internazionalizzazione, è anche esperta eTwinning, Erasmus+ ed Europrogettazione, con partecipazione a seminari multilaterali in Italia, Europa e Paesi del Mediterraneo. Attiva con pubblicazioni anche su Scientix e per Stem Discovery Week. Ha scritto per i suoi “gnomi” (come si diverte a chiamarli, e per i quali è Miss Angela), la collana completa di testi per la didattica bilingue 100% CLIL e technoCLIL per la scuola primaria. Last but not least, è una bassista con esperienze musicali in ambito nazionale e internazionale.