News / EU

Riot police, student protesters clash in Italy

Friday, 13 March 2015 1:28 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 13 March 2015 3:03 AM ]

Police officers covered with paint stand guard during clashes with students protesting a school reform plan in Milan, Italy, March 12, 2015.

Italian riot police have clashed with a group of students staging a demonstration in Italy’s second most populous city of Milan in protest against a controversial school reform bill.

On Thursday, scuffles broke out between riot police and protesters in Milan when the demonstrating students got close to the Lombardy Building, which is the city’s main seat of government.

The students were protesting a reform plan known as “Buona Scuola” or Good School.

As the police blocked the protesters from approaching the entrance of the building, the latter responded by throwing eggs, stones, smoke bombs as well as bottles containing paint at the police.

Security personnel, in return, fired tear gas canisters and stun grenades to break up the protest, and arrested a 15-year-old student protester.

Similar demonstrations also took place in a number of other cities, including Turin, Lecce, Pisa, Lecce, and the capital, Rome.

Students marched through central Rome and gathered in Piazza della Repubblica Square. The protesters used smoke bombs and flares, and carried a banner that read, “A Generation That Does Not Give Up.”

“This is yet another attack on public schools. Let’s go back to the streets to reclaim our rights. Greece is an example to follow for the fight against austerity,” said a protester.

“We are against the idea of education that they are proposing and we have an alternative. We have a lot of alternatives and we are a factory of ideas,” another demonstrator said.

Some 200 students marched in Turin and carried a banner reading, “Stop Buona Scuola, a step backwards.”

Under the reform plan, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi reportedly seeks to refurbish Italy’s school system through private sector investment, creating thousands of new teaching positions and introducing unpaid apprenticeships.

Opponents argue that the reforms will lead to increased privatization.

Italy spends only 4.9 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on education, and falls below the average of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s standards with respect to mathematics, reading and science.

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