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Italian Students Stage Noisy Protests

October 29, 2008 11:53 AM

By CLARK BENTSON and PHOEBE NATANSON, ABC News Rome

Opposing student groups faced each other down in Rome’s famous central Piazza Navonna as protests continued after parliamentary approval today of a controversial education reform bill. The usually packed restaurants that border the square were empty of tourists. Waiters were cleaning up broken glass and debris or, in some cases, guarding shuttered cafe doors among overturned tables.

Three students and one policeman were injured after they battled with sticks and with chairs and tables from the cafes. Fourteen students are being held by police, all from "blocco sudentesco," a student movement associated with right-wing political organizations.

The students, who had been holding an all-night sit-in outside the Senate in torrential rain, moved into the square early this morning. Graffiti and banners covered the scaffolding where restoration work on the famous Four Rivers fountain continued despite the unruly crowds.

High school and university students have been marching and holding impromptu sit-ins across Italy for two weeks now to protest against the raft of educational reform measures approved today. In addition to cutting costs, the reform package, driven by the governing majority, mandates a return to a single-teacher system for most subjects in elementary schools, and, in an effort to stop bullying, to grading the behavior of secondary school students.

At the university level, reforms include a reduction of degree offerings and a plan to open schools to private investment by allowing them to become foundations. Opposition politicians claim the package is only motivated by the need to cut costs rather than a true commitment to reform. They argue that the new bill will ruin the current, well-regarded elementary school system.

The protests seem to be supported by a cross section of Italian society, including parents, university professors and teachers. Lessons have been staged outdoor in the historic squares in Rome, Naples, Bari and Florence with curious onlookers and supporters following class. Loud, colourful and rambunctious marches by students have disrupted traffic in Milan, Rome, Palermo and Potenza.

Two days ago, as a provocation, unknown students put two of Rome's Universities - La Sapienza and Tor Vergata - on eBay for a modest price of one euro. Included in the price for the university building and grounds were "the professors, students AND their future, ample parking, classrooms laboratories, and bar."

Education Minister Maria Stella Gelmini has stood firm on the government reforms and played down the protests, saying that only a few thousand of Italy's nine 9 million students were protesting.

An anti-protest backlash started several days after Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi declared that those who wished to study should have the right to do so and the government would not tolerate sit-ins in schools and universities. Some students fear that they will not be ready to take exams or graduate this year. Groups calling themselves "I Want To Study" and "Have a Sit-In at Your House" have appeared on Facebook, while in Florence 10,000 postcards were printed to be sent to the local university dean asking that lectures resume.

An official nationwide protest has been called and is set to take place tomorrow. Students and teachers are expected to crowd the streets in every major city by the thousands.    

Read more blogs from Clark Bentson

Read more blogs from Phoebe Natanson

October 29, 2008 in Clark Bentson | Permalink | User Comments (3)

User Comments

Posted by: Piero | Oct 29, 2008 12:22:35 PM

Posted by: Piero | Oct 29, 2008 12:22:37 PM

Posted by: stefan bonafede | Oct 30, 2008 3:10:25 AM

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