The presidential office of the National Coordination of Student Councils has been elected, the voice of students from all Italian high schools, whose representatives last few days met the Minister of Education and Merit Giuseppe Valditara in the Hall of Ministers of the Mim. Present were the regional representatives of the provincial student councils (CPS) which are part of the new National Coordination Office (UCN). The gathered territorial representatives elected the four main positions that make up the Administrative Office of the Consultations: the national spokesperson Luca Santo (Lazio), the deputy spokesperson Matteo Bonetti Pancher (Autonomous Province of Trento), the secretary Giovanni De Martino (Campania) and councilor Riccardo Dallacasagrande (Emilia-Romagna).
“Within each school – declared Minister Valditara – student participation finds full expression in the Provincial Student Council. This commitment – implemented through a democratic election – represents a highly educational moment for young people. The constitutional school places the student at the center of the educational process: since the first day of my inauguration I have always underlined this principle. I therefore intend to enhance the role of student councils, an authentic training ground for democracy. I wish the newly elected students good work, guaranteeing them that on my part and on the part of the Ministry of Education and Merit, listening and support will never fail, in the name of constructive discussion”. Ample space is dedicated every week to the student councils of Sicily and Calabria in the Noi Magazine insert of Gazzetta del Sud, contributing to the diffusion among young people of the themes of democratic participation in the institutional debate, also through this important representative body.
The delegation for territorial differences goes to the Sicilian Council
“The meeting with the minister during the work of the UCN – states Caterina La Rocca, student of the Liceo Medi of Barcelona, president of the Provincial Council of Messina and coordinator of the Sicilian regional Councils – reminds us of the importance of the Councils and the need this representative body is listened to and convened by the institutions. All the regional councils await the convocation by the ministry of the CNPC in which we will have the opportunity to develop proposals for the entire student community, in a transversal way. The work of the UCN in addition to the vote of the positions, saw delegations of commissions, Sicily was delegated to coordinate the “Territorial Gaps” commission, which was discussed a lot during the two plenary sessions of the days at the ministry”.
Calabrian councils, among the themes shared the need for psychological support
Representing in Rome the USR Calabria directed by Dr. Antonella Iunti, the head of the Consultations, Franca Falduto and the newly elected coordinator of the Calabrian presidents, Filippo Daffinà, who had the great privilege of speaking directly with the minister Valditara to crown of multiple work sessions. After the elections foreseen by the regulation, an interesting debate took place on highly topical issues around which divergent and converging points of view emerged depending on the regions they belong to, but absolutely not conditioned by prejudices or positions determined by territorial or political affiliations. It is known, in fact, that the Student Councils, and therefore the Representatives who compose them, even more so the Presidents, have the obligation, dictated by the Student Statute and by Presidential Decree 567 of 1996 with which they were regulated, to not being able to influence the progress of the institutional body with party and/or associationist ideologies precisely by virtue of respecting the opinions of all the members democratically elected by the students of secondary schools in Italy.
Among the issues, one, above all, found unanimous agreement, namely the heartfelt request to provide widespread provision for the presence of a psychologist at school, highlighting the many fragilities that too often, lately, reach a tragic epilogue. The complexity of the organization of the curriculum was also discussed, especially regarding the last year of the course of studies in which it would be more useful and appropriate to be able to dedicate oneself with greater concentration to creating a smooth bridge with the university future. And the atavistic questions linked to transport and school buildings as well as safety, environment, PCTO, right to study, teaching and teacher training, evaluation, state exam, valorization of representation, sharing a reasoned path that led to the different sensitivity of the regional councils to a convergence and therefore to a synthesis to be presented and debated with the Minister in such a delicate moment as the current one. Minister Valditara oriented his speech on his vision of a school attentive to the education of the person and the citizen and he focused several times, generously and with full awareness of the role, on the work carried out by the referring teachers, recognizing the complexity within that very important institutional body that the Councils express through education in the exercise of active and democratic citizenship. Full satisfaction was therefore expressed by Franca Falduto and Filippo Daffinà in recognizing the minister's desire to maintain an open dialogue with students through their representatives, envisaging a systematic planning of thematic work tables with the Councils from which a contribution is requested serious for the concrete development of that comparison which is the basis of every form of progress.