Renzi sketches school revamp as reform drive continues

(ANSA) - Rome, September 2 - Premier Matteo Renzi said Tuesday that under his reforms, teachers will be hired on merit not just seniority.
    Writing on his webpage, the premier added that his school reform package to be unveiled Wednesday will call for hiring thousands of full-time staff instead of relying on temporary and "excruciating" substitutions. Italy has 600,800 full-time teachers, while another 154,000 work as temps. Renzi reportedly plans to hire as many as 100,000 new full-time teachers, and increase teachers for disabled children from 67,000 to 90,000. Abolishing substitute teaching is among the key points of his policy statement on education.
    The so-called 'schools package' is part of efforts by Renzi's government to kickstart the Italian economy, which has slipped back into recession, and reportedly includes planned investment of one billion euros on top of funds already made available for a school building programme announced earlier this year. The premier went on to say that the combination of long-overdue reforms and EU investments will turn Italy from the last car on the train into Europe's engine.
    The credit tap will be turned back on thanks to a 300-billion-euro stimulus package announced by European Commission President-elect Jean-Claude Juncker in July, plus 200 billion euros to be released by the European Central Bank (ECB), Renzi explained.
    "Banks will resume extending loans," pumping much-needed capital back into the real economy, he said.
    In addition, "thanks to the reforms Italy has been awaiting for twenty years, we will bring our country to its rightful place - as the locomotive, not the last wagon on the EU train," Renzi pledged.
    His "scrapping" of outdated Italian political and economic systems in Italy is not about "doing new things but about doing things better," he added. Under his ambitious 1,000-day reform plan for Italy, which will end in May 2017, Renzi has pledged to rewrite the country's Workers' Statute in order to both increase job protection and stimulate hiring.