Personalised teaching plans also coming to universities for pupils with learning disabilities

A university customised teaching plan for students with Dsa, Specific Learning Disorders. In the Senate, the Culture Committee is examining two bills that aim to improve support, including at university level, for these students who have specific learning disorders. In Parliament 24 we spoke with the rapporteur, Senator Carmela Bucalo of Fratelli d'Italia.

'I would like to make it clear right away,' explains Senator Bucalo, 'that a specific learning disorder is not a disease. Children with DSA have a perfectly normal cognitive capacity and it is a disorder that is part of neurodevelopment. These students have every chance, if properly supported, to achieve the same results and successes as all their peers attending university'.

The Culture Committee of Palazzo Madama adopted a basic text, focusing on the introduction of customised teaching plans. "They will basically serve to give an equal opportunity to all these students. Thus effectively eliminating the barriers they encounter on a daily basis from a didactic, organisational and methodological point of view. With the introduction of the Pdpu, i.e. the University Personalised Learning Plan, compensatory or dispensatory measures are identified and everything that is needed to improve the student's educational life. And thus eliminate that state of anxiety and frustration that is often the cause of dropping out of studies'. But how many university students with Dsa are there? "They number around 20,000. Unfortunately, however, many students do not declare that they have Dsa. A majority chose science, followed by the humanities and health".

Is the problem of students with this type of disorder underestimated by universities? "I would say that more than underestimated, there is no unified legislation, as there is in the field of education at all levels thanks to the 2010 law, which introduced a system of protections. Everything is left to the autonomy of the universities. So it is really necessary to introduce protection that is equal and, above all, that is mandatory in all Italian universities'.

Specific training is planned for university staff, from lecturers to tutors. "It is essential to train teachers and not only tutors, a very important figure in achieving success and achievement in the studies of the DSA student. Training is also important for administrative staff. Training is important not only to raise awareness of what a specific learning disorder is, but also to enable teachers and tutors to deal with it and support it in the best possible way.