School, five points for an agreement

In Europe, 1 in 5 young people are functional illiterates. According to recent surveys, in Italy they are 1 in 4. The phenomenon is caused by the drop-outs who attended school for while but did not learn the basic concepts and skills. And this has been happening for over fifty years. So, is school useful or not?
Yes, it is, but it is not sufficient. Indeed, in Italy, for each year of school attended the probability of entering the labour market increases by 2.4 percentage points while the chance to be employed increases by 1.6 percentage points. In terms of future income the high-school leaving qualification yields 9.7% while the degree yields 10.3%. On the contrary, those who drop out from school have to face serious damages. As for them, the possibility to receive information and exercise their citizenship rights decreases; their life expectancy is lower; the probability of developing illnesses and suffering from addictions or psycho-social disorders is higher; the chance to find a stable job decreases while prolonged unemployment, under the table work, temporary or low-income jobs are more likely; the chance of territorial and social mobility and of access to continuing education decreases; the possibility to commit an offence increases.
That said, those who attend school but have a weak primary literacy and come from a poor family with a poor education level leave school early in the majority of cases, that is 20.8% of the total. Now, the European benchmark for 2020 aims at halving them. But we should have done it for 2010 as well. And we are at a stop.

What can be done?
To reach a national agreement about five major actions:
1. to increase the number of nursery schools and crèches and to strengthen primary education, by providing more hours and better didactic tools for those who start at a disadvantage, for instance in the metropolitan areas of Southern Italy;
2. to aim for a system of vocational training on the pattern of Trentino and Lombardy regions: a three-year period of intense work about the knowhow and many hours reserved to citizenship competencies – to know how to read and write, to understand speeches, to follow logical processes, etc.;
3. To create a task force in the most depressed areas, involving schools, enterprises, parishes and sporting centres in ad personam projects:
4. to strengthen the literacy hours during the apprenticeship;
5. to offer a package of 300 customized hours per year to make both employed and unemployed under-30s – the weakest group of people – to achieve functional literacy

(Translation: Francesca Cannino)