After the letter of more than 200 teachers against the “exploitation” of the decision to close the Iqbal Masiq school in Pioltello on the occasion of the end of Ramadan, families are now also putting their position on paper. They reiterate their closeness and support to the director Alessandro Fanfoni, victim of threats and insults in recent days, and wish to declare their full confidence in the school staff. “School is, above all, human beings and professionals who work every day exclusively for our children and to help them live peacefully in their school,” the parents comment. “Educators, teachers, professors and managers are people with whom we wish to dialogue under the School-Family educational co-responsibility pact provided by the ministry,” they continue in the letter. “And we want to do it concretely, supporting – they conclude – the proposals presented by the Pedagogical Commission when we understand that the only driving force behind any initiative or idea is the attention and well-being of our children and their classmates class and friends.
The case
The Pioltello case continues to be discussed, especially after the observation of irregularities by the Lombardy Region and the consequent announcement by the director that he would have to renew the resolution to close the school at the end of Ramadan. For the manager, however, it remains a harmless “normal” choice to grant an extra day to the children, given the territorial and socio-cultural specificity in which it fits: a municipality in the Milanese hinterland with a little more of 30,000 inhabitants and a predominance of people of Arab and Pakistani origin. The number of foreign residents exceeds 20% and in the institute overwhelmed by controversy, at least 40% of students are of Islamic faith. But even the Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara, who has already intervened firmly on the subject by expressing his opposition to the school's decision, is returning to the subject. He condemns the threats made against Pioltello's manager, to whom he expresses his solidarity, and defines them as a “symptom of incivility”. But he defends himself and returns to the sender the accusations of racism and Islamophobia received in recent hours by the Democratic Party, which according to him are “serious and irresponsible, especially in a period full of tensions”.
Minister Valditara's reaction
In a note, Valditara clarifies the ministry's position: “Our actions adhered to the firm intention of enforcing the rules. And irregularities appeared in the matter: the provision which resolved the suspension of educational activities for April 10 was not justified and introduced an additional deviation from the calendar compared to that envisaged by the Lombardy Region which provides for a maximum number 3 days of suspension of classes. educational activities offered to schools”, he declares. “Any exemption must also meet the needs of the Educational Offer Plan and cannot aim in one way or another to recognize new holidays, a task which does not does not fall within the autonomy of a school”, reiterates the minister. According to him, “true inclusion in institutions with a strong presence of foreign students is achieved thanks to new forms of strengthening teaching and criteria training of more adequate classes”. A clear reference to the proposal, launched by himself at the end of February, to create a plan for schools in which to include support classes in the morning and reinforcement classes in the afternoon for foreign students with linguistic or mathematical deficits. A proposal which, however, met with disappointment from the unions and the opposition.
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