20 agosto 2021
On 20 August 2021, the newspaper “il Giorno” has published a new article of the Legal Representative of Freud School, Dott.Daniele Nappo, in his weekly column “Pianeta Scuola, Piazza Lombardia – Oltre il Covid”.
Dott. Nappo expresseses his considerations about the results of INVALSI test at national level.
Students of Middle School and Upper School had had the most important probles in learning. As a matter of fact, we have to remember that in the course of the last school year, they stayed at home more time than students in primary schools, because of the shutdown due to the pandemic.
INVALSI TEST: IT'S A USEFUL INSTRUMENT BUT NEEDS TO BE REFORMED
Pandemic has caused a lot of problems to Italian schools, especially to those students, who, had to face a long period of DL, because of the shutdown due to pandemic. . A In order to offer a real insight of how the school system is reacting as a consequence of the pandemic, we take as example the Invalsi test that just today has displayed the Invalsi National Report 2021 at the CNR Convention Hall in Rome. We have to remember that the Invalsi tests 2021 have been performed at the end of a very particular school year deeply afftected by the persistency of COVID-19.
Invalsi are the first standardized tests addressed to all students after the pandemic outbreak that has caused the suspension of the survey in school year 2019/2020.
They represent the first test on the effects of basic learning that have been achieved on a larger scale (Italian, Mathematics and English), after a long period of suspension of lessons in presence due to the high number of Covid-19 infections. The insight emerged after the performance of Invalsi Test ( s. y 2021) underlines several issues for the Italian School Institution. However, some positive aspects have been also put in evidence.
Invalsi Tests 2021: primary school succeeds in facing the pandemic situation
The comparison of results of primary school in s. y. 2019 and 2021 offers a partially stable insight. Primary school has succeeded in facing the difficulties caused by pandemic by ensuring results nearly equal to those detected in s.y 2019. The results of Invalsi tests 2021 are similar in all regions of the Country. Nevertheless, there are some indications that make discern particular aspects that in Upper Schools contribute to determine different results between schools and the national territory. Already beginning from primary school, in talian, in English and even more in Mathematics there is a difference of results among classes in Southern Italy. This means that rimary school in Southern Italy struggles more to ensure equal opportunities to everyone, with obvious negative effects on the prosecution of further school curricula.
Invalsi Tests 2021: more difficulty in Upper School
Students of middle classes and upper schools have had more troubles in learning. We have to remember, in fact, that in the course of the last school year, they had to stay at home for longer than the students of primary school because of the shutdown provoked by the pandemic
Probably the long period of DL has had its strong impact. As a matter of fact, both in middle and in upper school, in comparison to 2019, the results of Italian and Mathematics in school year 2021 were less satisfying, while those in English ( listening and reading) are quite the same.
In both school curricula, in all school subyects we perceive more troubles in learning among the students coming from disadvantageous socio-economic and cultural contexts.
Moreover, among these students the number that achieved good results has significantly decreased. In this way, it is reduced the equalization provision of the School Institution on students that obtain good or excellent results, even though they are coming from a disadvantageous context ( the so-called case of resilience).
Invalsi 2021: the pandemic intensifies the problem of school dropout
The pandemic has intensified the problem of school dropout, especially in its more difficult components to be identified and quantified.
According to the Invalsi Tests 2021, the availability of census data, comparable to a national base, enables to identify those students, who from a formal point of view are not affected by school dropout, but leave school without basic competences. So, they run the risk to access to the professional world in the same way of those students that haven't finished Upper School. This form of early school leaving has been defined as implicit or hidden school drop out.
In 2019, taking into consideration the data brought forward by the Invalsi Report 2021, the implicit early school leaving reached 7%: theat means that only 7% of Italian students in 2019 has obtained a school degree of Upper School, but with basic competences that had to be expected at the end of the first two years of Upper School or eeven at the end of Middle School. .
Unfortunately, the pandemic has intensified this issue and the percentage of the implicit school dropout has reached 9,5% and in some regions of Southern Italy has overcome the average calculations (Calabria 22,4%, Campania 20,1%, Sicily 16,5%, Apulia 16,2%, Sardinia 15,2%, Basilicata 10,8%, Abruzzo 10,2%). It's a very disturbing phenomenon because in these same regions the number of explicit early school leavers ( those who haven't achieved tthe degree of Upper School) is considerably higher than the national average.
Dott. Daniele Nappo
S. Freud School Legal Representative
