In the last school year marked by Covid, over 80,000 students did not achieve sufficient attendance at school to be scrutinized, i.e. they were rejected due to too many absences: a city of ghost students almost as big as Brindisi or Como, to aggravate the problem school dropout which is a nefarious record of our country. For 67% of Italians, it is an “alarming” phenomenon that needs to be tackled “urgently”. In the face of this motivated scaremongering, for 61% of Italians it is still right to reject due to excess absences even during the year of Covid. Poor school learning worries 62% of Italians, almost 10% more than in the 2019 survey.
These are some of the data that emerged from the survey promoted by the social enterprise Con i Bambini as part of the Fund for the fight against child educational poverty, carried out by the Demopolis Institute on the occasion of the International Day for the Rights of the Child and Adolescent which it is celebrated on 20 November. “Through this survey, the critical issues of the school system have emerged, but also the potential that a community can express – underlines Marco Rossi Doria, president of Con i Bambini -. Awareness of the role of educating communities is growing enormously, ie of a widespread and shared responsibility for the growth of our boys and girls, boys and girls and that we cannot leave behind the boys and children of too many poor areas of Italy.
Without ever mentioning it explicitly, this year with the survey we have also entered into the merits of the merits: for the majority of Italians, stable teams of teachers capable of promoting innovative teaching especially in the most fragile areas must be supported, while for less than 30% they must be rewarded individual teachers capable of promoting successful teaching regardless of the different contexts. A tendency to focus on schools that reduce gaps, which also clearly emerges in the choice of Italians to support schools that reduce inequality between students with more resources (72%) compared to the choice to support schools with a high of good or excellent student achievement to drive the education system (20%)”.
For Italians, school problems today mainly concern structures that are too old (64%). For 58% the problems are related to the lack of remedial activities for children in difficulty, for 56% they depend on the motivation of the teachers. But also for the phenomena of abandonment and early school leaving (53%). Indeed, the latter, for about 6 out of 10 Italians, have worsened in the last two years, with a slight difference in perception between parents (55%) and teachers (67%). According to the Italians, children unfortunately lose their way to school above all due to the fragility of the family context of origin (74%) and the inadequacy of the school with respect to serious recovery strategies (63%) and of local institutions in preventing or deal with the phenomenon (58%), but also due to the emptiness of the family-school-institution relationship system (57%). Only for 38% of the sample dropping out of school is due to a lack of specific resources and for 26% due to the migratory context of the family of origin.
“The Con i Bambini – Demopolis survey identifies some indicators of an adult Italy which, in the aftermath of the pandemic emergency – explains the director of Demopolis Pietro Vento – finds itself “frightened” by certain phenomena affecting a minority of minors. It is no coincidence that the main concern identified by citizens, thinking of children and adolescents in our country, is the spread of youth violence and baby gangs, with 76% of citations, but also episodes of bullying or cyberbullying and the consumption of alcohol and drugs for 63 percent of those interviewed”.
A country that finds it hard to be self-critical, but appears very critical of the most extreme drifts of unease among young people, even if they are limited and marginal situations, however serious. Also worrying, with a growing trend since 2019, is the dependence of children and young people on smartphones and tablets (73%), because, paradoxically, digital technologies, which have been the main antidote to the confinement dynamics imposed by the emergency Coronavirus, today they prove to be a serious limit in the development of minors, and perhaps also in learning. Thinking of children and teenagers, 62% of the interviewees consider the lack of scholastic learning to be worrying, with a figure that has grown by 9 points in the last 4 years.
Another theme that emerged from the survey concerns the phenomenon of baby gangs. According to public opinion, for the phenomenon of youth violence, above all, better control and greater knowledge of parents on the lives of their children is needed (75%). More than half of the sample also requests a legal squeeze: a more effective garrison of the police (53%) and greater surveillance of communications on social networks and chats by the Postal Police (52%). Just under 6 out of 10, in order to contrast violent tendencies, suggest the need for minors to have more extensive access to recreational, sporting or recreational activities outside of school.
For 74% of the interviewees, inequalities among minors in Italy have increased in the last two years. Opportunities are often valid for a few: just over 4 out of 10 Italians consider the context in which they live to be adequate in terms of sports facilities, schools, equipped green spaces. Only a third can state that they live in cities where cinemas, theatres, bookshops, nursery schools and childcare facilities can be defined as adequate. It is not – and a majority of citizens are aware of this – an Italy suitable for children and teenagers.
The responsibility for the upbringing of minors lies with the whole community: 85% of Italians are aware of this today. The conviction, which has grown over time, that it is not only up to the school to oversee the growth of children is now widespread among citizens, but it was not just 4 years ago. Also thanks to a constant work of raising awareness and collective motivation, this fundamental awareness of the role of the educating community has grown from 46% in 2019 to 85% today, with an increase of almost 40 points in 4 years (46% in 2019, 67 % in 2020, 78% in 2021, 85% in 2022). Similarly, the clear distinction between educational poverty and economic poverty has been affirmed in public opinion, even if the two feed each other. For 67% of Italians, in fact, educational poverty consists mainly in limited access to growth opportunities, for 57% in social discomfort around the minor, for 52% in low school learning and only for 12% it consists in poverty material.
The benefits of extracurricular activities are amply demonstrated by the parents of children who can experience them: children and adolescents socialize and develop a sense of community (63%), team spirit (62%), personal security and self-esteem (58%). They learn to respect the rules (56%), they acquire an interest in things (51%) and personal responsibility (50%). But there are still too few minors in Italy who can experience the precious benefits of a community that educates, while the pandemic has further aggravated the phenomena of child educational poverty which in our country, in the perception of 3 out of 4 interviewees, has increased compared to 3 years ago.
In this context of unfulfilled needs, the centrality of the activities of the Fund and of Con i Bambini is confirmed and the interventions to combat child educational poverty prove to be substantial, but expectations are also growing for the opportunities connected with the development of the National Recovery Plan and Resilience provided that the new generations become central to the country’s agenda.
In the perception of the majority of Italians (51%) the resources of the PNRR intended for minors are insufficient. Instead, it would be necessary to enhance the great potential connected to the development of the Plan, to restore centrality to the youngest and to the educating community as legitimate protagonists of the innovation processes of the PNRR and of the future of Italy. By investing in a rethought and redesigned school with the real needs of children at the center (66%), expanding the socio-cultural offer of the territories, with social spaces, places of production and artistic and laboratory use (61%), also for experimenting new jobs (54%). And then we need to focus on cities capable of regenerating and opening up to the needs of young people (51%). We need a new community pact, with the children.
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