Reform elementary schools, why grades return (and when)

The Meloni government is working on a new reform for elementary schools which, as the main innovation, will bring about the return of numerical grades and classic judgments for evaluations.
A real change of direction compared to the work conducted by Professor Elisabetta Negris, firm supporter of the so-called "descriptive grade".
Explanatory considerations instead of figures, to facilitate pupils' understanding without demoralizing them.
In fact, this approach has received several protests, so much so that only a small number of primary institutions have applied it.
A positive note, if we consider that the regime could soon change again, returning once again to numerical evaluations, just as Minister Mariastella Gelmini had already done in the Berlusconi IV government.
Grades are returning to schools, when and why The possible return of grades to elementary schools was announced by Paola Frassinetti, Undersecretary of Education, explaining that the descriptive assessments introduced 3 years ago have generated the opposite effect of what was hoped for, creating confusion and misunderstanding in families and in the students themselves.
The government is therefore considering the possibility of reintroducing the numerical votes and the "traditional" judgments that we now know well: insufficient, fair, excellent.
In this way, according to Undersecretary Frassinetti, the misunderstandings and difficulties of the teachers themselves would be eliminated, combining the training course with important life experiences because "Grades arrive inexorably in any case and getting used to them as children is a way to prepare for future evaluations ”.
Paola Frassinetti, however, clarified that there should be no dramatization or sanctioning intention in the numerical vote or expressed in traditional judgements, which serve exclusively to evaluate the students' educational path and to stimulate their commitment in an understandable and direct way, without creating confusion.
In short, the government's intentions regarding a possible school reform seem more than clear, but it is not yet foreseeable when it will be implemented.
To change – once again – the evaluation system in elementary schools, in fact, a ministerial ordinance is not sufficient, but rather a modification to the law in force is needed which must pass the process in Parliament.
A further point of uncertainty will be the behavior to be adopted, both for families and students and for teachers, during the months to come.
The descriptive evaluation, although not having been fully applied on the territory, still required a certain commitment from the parties involved, which could prove to be in vain.
Especially for the little ones, regardless of the method deemed most appropriate, the continuous transitions from one system to another risk creating more uncertainties than the evaluation systems themselves, although both are criticized by the opposing current precisely on this aspect.
read also School without grades, the intermediate report card disappears: where and how it works Professor Nigris's response, the problem of lack of training The reply from Professor Nigris, who coordinated the working group for the drafting of the guidelines, did not take long to arrive on the evaluation criteria, eliminating the votes in the primaries in favor of descriptive evaluations (in progress, basic, intermediate, advanced).
Naturally, the teacher supports a completely different current of thought compared to Undersecretary Frassinetti – despite both being supported by scientific opinions – defending the descriptive system and judging it to be more useful in stimulating students to overcome gaps, facilitating their commitment in a targeted way on the peculiarities and everyone's difficulties.
For a complete implementation of this objective an intense training course would have been necessary in every single primary school, which however was never carried out.
It is precisely this, according to Professor Nigris, that has caused the confusion of families, since the teachers themselves have not received the appropriate tools to carry out their task with the descriptive method, which instead "helps children to learn better and more effective” claimed the professor.
read also Medical certificate for returning to school: the number of Regions that have abolished it is increasing