(Finance) – Improving school services for students and families; guarantee more professorships covered from the first day of school; strengthen the alliance between the various protagonists of the school system; free schools from excessive bureaucratic obligations. These are the strategic objectives contained in theinformation relating to the launch of the Plan for simplification in the school sector presented today in the Council of Ministers by Minister of Education and Merit Giuseppe Valditara in adherence to what was announced last November to the Chambers during the illustration of the programmatic lines of the same dicastery.
“One of the main commitments we have made and are keeping – he said Valditara – is to carry out a serious intervention of de-bureaucratization of the school, so that it can concentrate on its main mission: the educational activity. With the simplification plan we aim to improve the quality of our school, relaunch and finally complete school autonomy, introducing new forms of coordination and support”.
THEThe Plan is divided into three lines of action: organisational/technological interventions; procedural/organisational innovation; regulatory simplification. It was defined at the end of a process that saw the involvement and listening of various categories that animate the school community (trade unions, associations, school staff) and the recognition of the numerous fulfilments borne by the institutions and the critical issues encountered by families in accessing the “school system”. A process of measurable actions is thus outlined (also in terms of the difference between starting conditions and results achieved) which converge on strategic objectives, the degree of achievement of which can also be assessed. The interventions will have a gradual and diversified implementation, according to their complexity.
At the same time, the presentation of a simplification bill linked to the financial manoeuvrewhich intervenes on the Consolidated law on education and incorporates any regulatory needs that emerge from organisational/technological and procedural/administrative interventions or from discussions with peripheral structures of the Ministry, Regions, territorial bodies and other subjects interested in the School ecosystem. Already in the Ministerial Decree of 16 February last, with the PNRR decree-law, important simplification and acceleration measures of some interventions in the field of school construction were anticipated.
The launch of the Plan provides for the first 20 simplification measures, attributable to the first level of intervention (organisational/technological). Adequate forms of transparency are also ensured on the status of the planned interventions, which will be published on the Ministry’s website.
Planned interventions – From the end of 2023 there will be ansingle online platform, which will allow families and students access to tools and information useful for choosing a school (for example where the institutes are located, what addresses are available, programs and training plans), in order to proceed directly with enrollment and subsequently to the payments required during the studies. The Plan also envisages guaranteeing greater coverage of professorships since the start of the school year. Various interventions are envisaged, such as speeding up fulfilments for retirement, identifying procedural, organizational and technological solutions to be able to make new appointments in time for the start of the school year and faster management of short-term substitutes. Among the objectives also that of speed up state contributions to less well-off families for the purchase of textbooks.
Lastly, the Plan aims at simplify purchasing management, reduce litigation. Through a new platform for the purchasing system and the creation of digital solutions for the classification of sentences and the standardization of instructional models, schools will be relieved of excessive bureaucracy.