Despite nine roads to tenure, 'substitutionitis' remains the top issue of the new year

With just a few days to go before the start of the new school year, the spotlight is beginning to turn on the so-called 'supplentite'. Which, despite the nine recruitment procedures (including competitions, 'amnesties', recruitment of suitable candidates, and so on) provided for by the current legislation is, even this year, far from being definitively defeated.

To realise this, it is enough to see the bickering over figures that has been going on these days between the unions, which raise the alarm (they do it every year) for the more than 200/230,000 substitute teachers and technical-administrative staff, and the Ministry of Education and Merit, which punctually halves these figures, while waiting for the real data that will arrive no earlier than the autumn, with classes and lessons started.

It must be clearly stated that 'supplentitis' is a historical evil of the Italian school. But as families and students well know, it weighs heavily, first and foremost on learning. Many children, in some cases, see the permanent teacher arrive even in December (the waltz of professorships at the beginning of each year should really be tackled seriously, all experts and service users now argue).

In recent weeks, the government authorised MIM to permanently recruit 48,504 teachers, of whom 13,860 on support, 44 educational staff, 6,022 teachers of the Catholic religion, and 10,348 administrative, technical and auxiliary (Ata) staff. Despite, as said, eight to nine standing procedures, about 80%/85% of these availabilities will actually be hired.

A concrete example of a system that needs to be strongly reformed is the so-called mini fast call, one of these recruitment procedures which allows teachers to compete for the recruitment of support posts available in a province other than the one in which they are registered. According to a report by the CISL Scuola, this procedure would have covered only a fraction of availability, less than 20%, leaving a record number of vacancies in primary schools. In fact, out of 7,287 available places, there are 1,466 recruitments, while as many as 5,831 places remain uncovered, equal to 80.2% of availability. It is the primary school that appears to be suffering the most, and the difficulties in meeting the need for specialised personnel for teaching on support posts are concentrated in the northern regions. It is also for this reason that Minister Valditara is fighting, as part of the Piano Casa Italia, to achieve affordable housing for school staff who move for an 'off-site' job.