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"Among my 250 students, the ones who are best in Italian are the Chinese! That's outrageous!" says university professor.
By Anne Le Nir,Rome | Italy
Italians are uniting against the decline of the language of Dante. University rectors and professors as well as members of the Crusca Academy, founded in Florence in 1582 for the defense of the Italian language, are among the 615 signatories of an open letter addressed last week to the Italian government and to parliament.
The letter is the initiative of the "Florence Group," an association of teachers and intellectuals founded in 2005. It's objective is to place the principles of merit and respect for rules back at the center of family, school and university life.
"If an Italian does not know how to speak or write his maternal language correctly, he will lose his identity," warns Giuseppe Scaraffia, a literature professor at La Sapienza University in Rome.
Although the problem is not new, it is continuing to worsen. Indeed, figures from the National Institute for Statistics (ISTAT) reveal that 58% of Italians did not read a single book during 2016.
In 2000 this figure was 46%.
As an example, Professor Scaraffia ironically cites a recent story from one of his colleagues who was forced to explain the meaning of the word "penultimo" (penultimate) to one of his students.
"This clearly illustrates the deficiencies of our young people. They have a very poor vocabulary because they read little or not at all," he laments. "They write as if they are sending an SMS. With all the faults of punctuation and grammar, syntax, conjugation etc. It's a disaster!"
Emma Nardi, a pedagogy teacher at the University of Rome III, agrees.
"I launched an initiative in 2010 to create a project of relearning the Italian language for my students," she explains. "They are note even able to write an email properly!"
According to the text of the Florence Group letter, many students particularly those from the disadvantaged regions of southern Italy, have a knowledge of the Italian language equivalent to that of a student at the end of primary school. Yet, this does not prevent them from obtaining a university degree.
The open letter also highlights the lack of awareness of this decline in the Italian language by the successive governments since 1990.
"Measures have been taken for the ongoing formation of teachers but no reform has confronted this the problem at the level required. Italy needs a more demanding and more effective education system. Without this, neither the commitment of competent teachers nor the introduction of new technologies will be enough."
Regular tests of basic competencies at primary school and high schools including dictation, précis writing, and comprehension tests are among the proposals that the concerned professors have made.
Professor Scaraffia believes that it will also be necessary to introduce an Italian language test prior to university enrollment.
"Among my 250 students, the ones who are best in Italian are the Chinese! That's outrageous!" he exclaims.
The new Minister for Education, Valeria Fedeli, has promised to meet with the signatories of the open letter as soon as possible. But in her response, she says that "primary schools in Italy are operating well".
Nevertheless, she recognizes the need "to act at high school level to increase increasing reading and writing activities and to strengthen analytical capacities".
She also announced a project of collaboration with the National Press Federation for the distribution of daily newspapers in school establishments.
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