In the Council session that has just ended, the Secretariat of State for Education had two moments of particular relevance, albeit with two different ambitions.

The Secretary of State for Education gave the news, specifying: “The Framework Law on Higher Education (university) has in fact been presented in first reading, a missing piece in our legislation which incorporates and defines the principles and standards of autonomy, quality, promotion of internationalization that unites all universities in Europe and ensures that our university institutes also conform to them. Furthermore, with an emergency procedure, the personnel requirement of the Education Department was modified, finally integrating it with the professional figure of the school psychologist.

In the first case, the presentation of the new Law received contributions of appreciation, both from the opposition and from the majority, and saw the recognition of the great importance it could have for the future development of our higher institutes already present in San Marino, University of and Musical Institute, and those that may eventually arise in the future. Now the approval process will go through the work of the council commission and finally to the second reading.

In the second case, on the other hand, the discussion on the need to introduce a school psychologist into the San Marino education system sparked a conflict between the majority and the opposition, even within the majority itself, representing a very unedifying moment in the work of the Great and General Council .

It certainly doesn’t escape anyone how the school psychologist has become an essential necessity to support, support, help students, teachers and families. The growing psychological discomfort in young and very young people, which has increased exponentially during the pandemic, is a fact that no one can dispute and in fact no one has the courage to put it into words.

However, faced with the concrete possibility of acting in one direction – which is that of preventing discomfort and promoting well-being at school – the real opinions of the adult world and in particular of the political world were seen.

At this point it should be remembered that the figure of the school psychologist had already been authorized, unanimously in 2018, by the Great and General Council itself, at the request of an Arengo Instance. A further council step, in support of a systematic project that would strengthen the experience of the listening spaces activated during the pandemic in middle, high and CFP schools, with specific professional figures, was completed in May 2022.

Therefore, the introduction of this professional figure, which has been present for several years in all European school systems, and now also in the Italian one, is the natural consequence of acts and reflections that have matured for some time now.

Naturally the discussion in the Council slipped, out of pure and ignoble hypocrisy of someone, along the ridge of the administrative “procedure” followed, albeit very clear, to integrate the needs of the school, which obviously did not currently include such professional figures.

Using such a sensitive and urgent issue for our young people and therefore for our future, for the sinister purpose of carrying out internal showdowns in the council or the so-called party game, was decidedly dishonorable for this parliament. In conclusion, thanks to common sense and the felt need on the part of the majority of those present to finally be able to guarantee the school psychologist service beyond mid-November, with school starting three months ago, the Council approved the request. The sense of bitterness remains for those who truly work and are in contact every day with our young people and who have once again had to touch with their own hands how rhetoric and reality are always far apart, and, even more , on the international day of children’s rights, how these are in fact “invisible” for many adults and for many institutions. Let’s hope that sooner or later this can change permanently.

In the meantime, the commitment of the Education Department and the search for collaborations with the Social and Health Services for the construction of the best projects will continue”.