Protect Our Education Rights: NO Annual Compulsory Exams for Italian Home-Ed Kids

Dear homeschooler friends,

The Italian Parliament has recently approved an Act (no.384 “Buona Scuola”) stating that the fulfilment of the duty of Education by the parents must be proved through annual school exams. Up until today our regulamentation protected the freedom of teaching and families that chose this path simply had to notify the school officials on a yearly basis.

At present the Ministry is drawing up the final version of this Act that would lead home-ed families toward the same standardized and levelled situation that is already badly affecting the Italian school system.

It is now time to join our forces to lobby the Ministry for the removal of any references to home education from the Act no.384 or, at least, for their compliance with the current regulations.

Members of Parliament and Senate from different political groups are supporting us, as they perfectly understand that this Act from “Buona Scuola” set of rules is highly unconstitutional.

Ask your families and friends to raise their voices against this Act.
Join us and sign the following letter that will be sent to the Italian Ministry of Education and her staff.

Please personalize this letter with your name and Country of residence.

Thanks for your support from all the fellow Italian Home Educating families!

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to:
valeria.fedeli@senato.it
segreteria.particolare.ministro@istruzione.it
s.bono@istruzione.it
segreteria.donghia@istruzione.it
segreteria.toccafondi@istruzione.it
segreteria.defilippo@istruzione.it
DPIT.segreteria@istruzione.it
segr.capouffleg@istruzione.it
e.borelli@istruzione.it
alessandra.belloni2@istruzione.it
gianluca.lombardo3@istruzione.it
edu@generika.it

Object:
Regulations about Exams for Home-Educated Children

To the attention of the Ministry of Education Valeria Fedeli,
Head of the Ministerial Staff Sabrina Bono,
Undersecretaries Angela D’Onghia, Gabriele Toccafondi and Vito De Filippo,
Department for the education and vocational training system Dr. Rosa De Pasquale,
Legislative Office of the Ministry of Education Avv.Paolo Grasso, Dr. Elisa Borelli, Dr. Alessandra Belloni, Dr. Gianluca Lombardo

I’m a supporter of the Home-Education Network that, in Italy, groups hundreds of families who directly and privately educate their children in accordance with the relevant set of rules.

I noticed that one of the Act pertaining to “Buona Scuola”set of rules (Act no. 384) provides restrictions – unconstitutional, in my opinion – to the assertion of the education right for parents who choose to directly educate their children, since it compels – arbitrarily and contrary to the rules in force – a yearly assessing exam as a proof of the fulfilment of the education duty (according to the change introduced by the Committee of the Senate). This compulsory assessment is clearly uncostitutional.

The laws in force are already exhaustive as far as qualifying exams for home-educated children are concerned and they don’t provide for any compulsory qualifying exams to be passed yearly. Furthermore, the change at issue could cause trouble to Headmasters who would risk law-suits by families deprived of their constitutional right.

The prescription of an annual exam would also clash with the Ministerial Guidelines for the education in the primary school that expressly invite to the “contextualization of contents, methods, planning” (National Guidelines, M.D. no.254 2012-11-16, page 12). The Guidelines repeat many times that “the base literacy is to be achieved over the five years of the primary school and the three years of the lower secondary school, with respect for the individuality of educatees”. (ibid.)

I also believe it’s important to specify that the obligation concerns the education – freely given (art. 30, 33 and 34 of Italian Constitution) – not the attendance of schools or the assessing procedure. The paragraph at issue, if not suitably amended and worded, would be prejudicial to the correct enforcement of the Constitutional dictates and the rules in force.

To sum up, any compulsory exam to be taken yearly for home-educated children who are not going to attend a school would clearly clash with the laws in force, furthermore it would bind to a subordinate inspection of learning contents and would be prejudicial to the personalization of curricula – highly recommended by all national guidelines for school teachers, and all the more for home-educating families.

The laws in force as to home education are clearly exhaustive. I therefore ask you to remove any references to home education from the Act no.384 or to make them comply with the current rules in force.

According to the above, I suggest that the monitoring on the education duty by the authorities should be based – as it is at present, pursuant to the Legislative Decree 76/2005 art. 1, paragraph 4 – on a positive and direct dialogue between headmasters and families, with respect for different curricula and personal learning methods.

I deeply appreciate your attention and I thank you.

Yours faithfully,