“You’re No Longer Qualified”: Italian Graduates Hit by Kafkaesque Ruling
Educational qualification not recognized for working as nursery school teachers.
Some former graduated university students in Italy are compelled and forced to attend classes again. Graduates of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia’s 2017 and 2019 courses in Educational Sciences are living an incredible situation. If it hasn’t happened to you, it might have happened to a friend, family member, or acquaintance who had a nightmare in which they relived the final week of high school without having finished the required readings. As a result, they might not have been able to access the final exams or might have had to retake them.
Some people experience a lot of stress at this stage of life, which is the cause of this kind of nightmare. Paolo Genovese‘s 2011 film “Immaturi” addressed the subject of retaking final examinations. Given that the protagonists were told the exam was invalid after 20 years, the film’s underlying theme may have seemed forced, but the recent news that is currently making the rounds in many Italian newspapers highlights how even a movie with a strong bureaucratic quibble can become a reality for some people. Those enrolled in the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 two-year periods, who therefore completed their university training cycle, were informed that if they wanted to teach in a nursery school they would have to take three exams and write a degree thesis. The Athenaeum of Educational Sciences of the University of Reggio Emilia and Modena sent an email to 350 graduate educators on June 20, communicating that “The qualification for nursery school is no longer qualifying”.
The former students’ plea is clear: they want the institution to provide a more agile and equitable solution that takes into consideration their previous route and expertise.
The reasons and regulatory changes behind the complex situation and their impact
In 2017, a decree was issued, number 65, which established some important innovations for educational personnel in childcare services: since then, a degree in education and training sciences is no longer sufficient. A specific curriculum is needed, to which Italian universities have had to adapt their study plans. Many of the graduates of this two-year period have already had the opportunity to discover this by trying to work in a nursery school, where they were faced with the new skills required. The director of the course Antonio Gariboldi, in an interview declared “We are waiting for an amnesty, in Italy the problem affects 31 thousand people“.
The degree they earned in educational sciences would no longer be eligible for employment as early childhood educators in both the private and public sectors.
In an effort to give its graduates a route that enables them to get the required credentials, the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia has taken action to find a solution to safeguard them.
Antonio Gariboldi added, “Only some areas have not been affected, for example Bologna, because a specific degree course for nursery school teachers has been established there.” At the moment, the solution proposed by the University of Reggio Emilia and Modena to validate the degree is “the possibility of re-enrolling in the final year of the course to cover the missing CFU, equal to approximately three exams, without having to redo the internship, and at a reduced cost, approximately 500 euros compared to the average 2,000 for enrollment.” In addition, students are required to submit a final thesis of about thirty pages. Gariboldi concludes, “we wrote to report: this problem exists, and while we wait for an amnesty, but we don’t know if it will arrive or when, the only way to resolve it is to obtain these CFU. We wrote asking each student to send their particular position, so that we can give individual and precise answers. Some people didn’t take the news well, also because they didn’t have the slightest idea of the problem, but our effort was designed to protect them.” The issue, which has now surfaced eight years after enrollment, is caused by the Unimore universities’ being unable to modify the training study plan during that two-year period as mandated by the legislative decree.
The modification was not put into effect quickly enough to safeguard the affected students. There is a bureaucratic problem.
As a result, the qualifying degree, at least in theory, does not satisfy the requirements needed to enter the field of nursery school teaching. The former students woke up from a dream to fall into a nightmare. The director of the Department of Education and Human Sciences of the University, Annamaria Contini, commented “The activation of the new degree courses, however, was only possible after the issuance of a new decree, the following year. The result was the creation of a time gap, between 2017 and 2019, to which the individual universities tried to provide answers for the protection of their students“. Students who thought they had successfully completed their studies and could finally enter the world of work, now find themselves faced with a choice: retrace their university years, including fees, taking the missing exams, and writing a new thesis, or settle for a “mutilated” qualification, at their own risk. The director of the degree course in Reggio Emilia and Modena adds, “They were no longer allowed to work as nursery school teachers. They found themselves leaving with different career opportunities than those expected.”
The paradox is that, in the absence of amnesty, individuals who began working in nursery schools would not only be unable to compete in public or private events because of their insufficient qualifications, but gaps would also be created in the industry, which would have an impact on families and children. The University of Trieste shares this issue, and it is currently unknown how many universities must deal with it. It is a catastrophic event, and it is on the verge of a tragicomic scenario. What seems like an isolated incident actually concerns many others Italian universities, which have found themselves having to manage the effects of a regulatory change that was not always received in time in university programs.
The law known as Legislative Decree 65 of 2017 changed the prerequisites for employment in the childcare industry by imposing a particular course of study.
A law has changed the requirements for working
The Cgil clearly asks for clarification. The union: “Institutions and employers play an active role in solving the problem“. It adds “Finally, it goes without saying that early childhood education services represent a jewel in the crown for our city and how much of this historic collective “pride” depends on the professionalism of those who work there every day. We therefore believe it is appropriate that local institutions and public and private employers (who we are already involving) play an active role in identifying a sustainable solution to this problem“. Cgil of Reggio and Modena together report to the Fp and Flc categories, who underline: “No other university, to date, appears to have sent similar communications to its former students“.
Therefore, “in order to fully understand the reasons for this position that risks having a heavy impact on the overall stability of educational services in the provinces of Modena and Reggio, and to fully protect the workers affected by this measure“, the unions have requested a meeting with the Rector and the director of the Department of Education and Human Sciences. They add “We will do everything in our power to prevent this situation from being dumped exclusively on former students who are now workers, who have no responsibility other than, paradoxically, having graduated from Unimore and not from another university“. Finally, they also call on the employers of the educators to take an active part in resolving the matter. In order to protect their students, universities were required to change their study plans and immediately activate new courses: a significant issue that requires more time. Some who work now do so without a degree. On the chats of former university students of Educational Sciences at UniMoRe, the prevailing mood is a mix of disbelief and anger.
There was a paradoxical scenario where some graduates were denied access to nurseries, they couldn’t work in early childhood care. “We feel cheated” is chaos.
There has been a great desire to protest since they were informed that the degree is no longer valid; or rather, it does not qualify them for the role of educators that many already perform, daily and with difficulty, in nurseries. This bureaucratic problem, as the Gazzetta di Reggio writes, also raises other questions: will they have to redo the internship and discuss their thesis again? The situation is surreal, which is why students would like to take collective action at a national level. A former student after the three-year degree decided to graduate in pedagogy and told journalists “I would have to take 5 more exams, three of which in the laboratory, plus the thesis. Among other things, I have already taken an exam that is required of me in the master’s degree and I asked for information. I was told that no one knows“.
A student released this statement “In addition to the professional damage, we are living a real psychological and emotional nightmare. There are those who suffer from anxiety, those who do not sleep at night, those who have interrupted work experiences with the hope of a future that is now brutally denied to us. We feel we have been deceived and abandoned by a university system that has not done its minimum duty“. One of the former students involved, now working as an educator, says “I graduated in 2022. A colleague sent me the screenshot. I immediately thought it was a joke. I asked for information: I would have to take three exams, a laboratory and the thesis“. The student adds, “The University of Modena and Reggio, in my opinion, would have had the time and means to protect us, as the University of Bologna did.” A student, at the Resto del Carlino, highlighted the psychological consequences of the incident: “In addition to the professional damage, we are living a real psychological and emotional nightmare“.
It seems that there are 31 thousand people trapped in the “The House That Makes People Mad” episode of “The Twelve Tasks of Asterix” (Les douze travaux d’Astérix) a 1976 film directed by René Goscinny, Albert Uderzo, Henri Gruel and Pierre Watrin. In this episode the creators underlined the grotesque and complex side of the Italian bureaucracy that puts citizens in paradoxical situations.
Sources
- Corriere di Bologna
- Gazzetta di Modena
- Stampa Reggiana
- Orizzonte Scuola
- Reggio Sera
- Torino Cronaca
- Repubblica, Edizione di Bologna
- Il Resto del Carlino
- Wikipedia 1, 2
Ciao! My name is Dominique. I’m Italian and I’m proud to be a mix. My father was an Italian chemical engineer and high school teacher, with Greek and Polish heritage. My mother is Haitian, she was high school language teacher, with Dominican, Spanish, French, Portuguese, African and Native American heritage. Being a mix makes me appreciate to want to understand different cultures and lifestyles. I grew up in Italy, lived few years in Haiti, travel around main European capitals, lived seven years in China, six in Spain and UK. Traveling makes me feel that we can learn something from every situation in every part of the world.