Why do I want to leave Italy?

Well, it isn’t an easy question. Many reasons pushed me to go abroad. The first is the economical crisis that struk Italy. The cost of living is very increased in few years and our politicians believe to  solve the problem through a so heavy taxation that turns out to be a harassment to citizens. Our salaries are not enough to reach the end of the month, while, our politicians’ salaries are the highest in all Europe. It is not easy at all to pay a mortgage, but it is not easy even to make the most elementary purchases, such as food, or paying the bills!

                Anyway , the main reason why I left Italy is the condition of teachers in Public School. In Italy, a teacher has an inferior salary than a common worker, despite, his Degrees and Masters. Our salaries are half the salary of a German teacher, and lower than that of a Spanish teacher.

                A good average of Italian teachers do not have a permanent contract, but from year to year, they are engaged by a different school, according to a strict ranking imposed by the Government. Their contract begins in September and ends in June. So, they are unemployed during the summer. And it has been for decades before the crisis. Our category is that of the so called “precarious teachers”. “Precarious teachers” have no right to seniority, if not after getting a permanent contract, and only after some years. An example, if we get a permanent contract after 25 years of teaching, our right to seniority begins in that moment. All this means that another teacher who got his permanent contract ten years before, with less years of experience, has a higher salary than anotherr with a long carrier as a temporary teacher.

                Furthermore, a teacher who would like to keep his preparation up-to-date, or practice the languages he teaches in a foreign Country, has no possibility to do so, because he has not enough money.

Every year, when a teacher enters a new classroom, his students know very well his situation.

                It’s so humiliating.

 Italian parents have a great power in school, and claim to control everything, even the way of teaching. Many parents delegate to teachers the education of their children, and this atmosphere is harmful to the same institution of the teacher, their children, in fact, consider him/her as a sort of second level teacher.

                I needed to breathe a different air, maybe to change my job, or carry on the profession of teacher abroad, I do not know, but the need many Italian teachers feel is to flee from Italy.