HUNDREDS OF thousands of secondary school and university students took to the streets of Italy yesterday in a nationwide protest at education cuts.
From Bolzano in the north to Palermo in Sicily and including cities such as Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Rome and Venice, protesters took part in a one-day general strike that forced more than 70 per cent of schools and nearly all public universities to close.
For the second time in five days, following last Saturday's centre-left demonstration against the centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi, an estimated million protesters poured onto the streets of Rome, causing the inevitable traffic chaos.
In the capital, a small minority of marchers threw eggs and other objects at the ministry of education building in Trastevere as they made their way to a final rally in Piazza del Popolo, organised by five teaching trade unions.
In Milan, students staged a short symbolic sit-in in front of the Milan stock exchange in Piazza Affari, with students chanting: "No, we're not going to pay for the crisis". Among those to take part in the protest were Democratic Party (PD) leader Walter Veltroni, Italy of Values (IDV) leader Antonio Di Pietro, comedian and political activist Beppe Grillo, confederated trade union CGIL leader Guglielmo Epifani as well as many senior opposition figures. At the heart of the protest was concern about cost-cutting measures in primary and secondary schools, as well as universities.
The so-called "Gelmini" decree, which takes its name from minister of education Mariastella Gelmini and which was passed into law on Wednesday, is a school reform package which, according to critics, implements €9 billion of cuts and may result in the loss of 130,000 primary-school teaching jobs. Furthermore, university research cuts next year may come to €1.4 billion .
The school reform package contains measures such as the re-introduction of a 10-point system for grading pupils' conduct, as well as one to ensure that text-books have at least a five-year shelf life, in order to reduce family costs. Whilst these measures may meet with approval, a measure to rationalise primary school teaching arrangements which would cause significant job losses has proved bitterly controversial.
Even if opposition leader Veltroni vowed to promote a referendum to abrogate the "Gelmini", prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and the minister were standing by their law. The minister this week claimed that her reforms had the support of "the overwhelming majority of Italians" and that they would "bring seriousness and merit back to schools". The prime minister accused the centre-left of political opportunism, saying: "I regret that young people have been manipulated by the left".