Students in Italy have recently ended their summer vacation, which lasted over three months, and have returned to school. However, the persistently high temperatures have become a major obstacle to the new semester, with some teachers calling for an adjustment to the academic calendar and a postponement of the start of school.
An administrator at a school in Palermo, Sicily, told an AFP reporter, “The direct sun makes the classrooms into a greenhouse, which is unbearably hot.” The high temperatures endanger the health of both students and teachers, and under such conditions, the quality of education cannot be guaranteed. The head of the local teachers’ union stated that due to climate change, “we cannot continue using the academic calendar from 50 years ago.”
According to an AFP report, Italy has the longest summer vacation in Europe, lasting 97 days this year, far exceeding Spain’s 77 days, France’s 56 days, and Germany’s 44 days. The start of the school year has brought a sigh of relief to exhausted parents. Faced with the teachers’ call to extend the summer break, parents have expressed opposition, arguing that such a move would increase the burden on working families.
Data from Italy’s Ministry of Education shows that over half of the country’s school buildings are old, with only 6% of schools nationwide equipped with air conditioning, and electricity prices are high.
Information from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service shows that since the 1980s, Europe has been warming at twice the global average rate, with a significant extension of high-temperature summer periods.