Alto Adige opens school year 1 week early

(ANSA) - BOLZANO, SEP 7 - The northern Italian region of Trentino-Alto Adige on Monday became the first Italian region to inaugurate the post-COVID era by reopening a week before schools across the country.
    Some 91,797 pupils returned to nurseries and schools in the region bordering Austria after a six-month closure for the coronavirus emergency.
    Nursery schools also reopened in the Veneto town that saw the first COVID death in Italy on February 21: Vò Euganeo near Padua.
    Meanwhile Education Minister Lucia Azzolian hit back at attacks from nationalist opposition League party leader Matteo Salvini who has branded her "incompetent" and called school reopening plans "chaotic".
    Noting that Salvini has been criticising her "every day", the populist 5-Star Movemet (M5S) member said "he is using the school issue as an electoral club" ahead of elections in seven Italian regions and hundreds of towns on September 20-21.
    "Has he got a conscience or is he only sowing panic among students?" Azzolina pointed out that opposition parties have worked with the government on the COVID emergency in other countries.
    (ANSA).