MERANO. Verdi and Team K, each on their own path but united in concepts and intentions, respond to the SVP that “bounced” the pilot project for a bilingual section in a nursery school, which however would still be identified, in Merano. Stella Alpina itself had approved the motion on the implementation of the project, presented two years ago by Team K, only to then, now that it has taken shape, withdraw from it.
The project was presented a few days ago at the press conference on the decisions of the council, in the town hall, by a cross-party group between the majority and the opposition. In the front row were councilor Emanuela Albieri (Civica) and city councilors Sabine Kiem (Team K), Julia Dalsant (Greens) and Beatrice Calligione (Civica), part of the working group on the topic. There was the Mayor Dario Dal Medico who supports the initiative. No one from the SVP.
In Value.
It is a battle, that of the bilingual school, on which the Greens have been insisting for years. And since 2023 the Green council group in the Province has also launched a petition that is about to reach 2,500 signatures. In a note they state: “A pilot project for a bilingual kindergarten could yield valuable results for bilingual education in South Tyrol. As an additional offer, it would guarantee the maintenance of German and Italian language structures. Therefore, there is no threat to the German language group. Exposure to a second or third language has clearly proven to be beneficial already in the early years of life and does not in itself represent an excessive burden for children”, explains the spokesperson of the Merano council group Julia Dalsant. An appeal, that of the Greens, to look beyond their own fence. «In the city government program there is the establishment of bilingual nursery school sections: establishment of a bilingual section in nursery school, possibly continuing with pilot projects», recalls the city councilor Florian Mayr, pointing his finger towards the Vice President Katharina Zeller which is asked to be more consistent with the commitments undertaken.
The motion.
The pilot proposal for a bilingual preschool follows the almost unanimous approval in the council (including the SVP) of a proposal put forward by Team K in 2022. Stella Alpina has now distanced itself from the conclusions of the city working group that resulted from it and in which she did not participate. “It was quite predictable that the SVP would not be able to free itself from its ghosts, not even in Merano, where it likes to present itself as cosmopolitan and green” comments the Green councilor Clauda Bellasi. «A pilot project would simply be an additional offer that paradoxically could even slow down the strong influx of children to German facilities”, writes the councilor in relation to the alarm raised by Zeller on the “Italianization” of German schools in the city. Bellasi continues: “There are many families waiting for a similar opportunity and it would not even be difficult to find specialized personnel willing to work in a bilingual nursery school. This is an issue that concerns families of all linguistic groups and not only those of Italian language, as underlined several times by the deputy mayor Zeller who now seems to have changed her mind”, observes councilor Bellasi. Supporting the inter-party working group born from the need to offer the population a school that looks to the future, in their note the Greens clarify the objectives of this third and parallel path to the education of young generations: “A bilingual nursery school promotes inter-ethnic coexistence, the parity of both languages and the linguistic awareness of boys and girls from 3 to 6 years old. Both languages would be equally present in the teaching and education of children who would also have the advantage of living in an educational context that presents and promotes both. This means that neither language would be disadvantaged compared to the other.”
The Team K.
“Councillor Achammer is fueling the now anachronistic fear that a bilingual training model is the death knell for mother tongue teaching,” begins the note released by Team K. It says Sabine Kiemcity councilor and, as mentioned, member of the working group that formalized the initiative: “It was clearly stated that the pilot project is an additional option and that not even one German-speaking kindergarten section will be eliminated. The introduction of a bilingual kindergarten in South Tyrol, with an equal number of children speaking both provincial languages, is an important step towards promoting bilingualism, intercultural competence and equality. The daily routine of kindergarten not only promotes children’s language skills, but also lays the foundation for a society that is increasingly a community, based on respect and mutual understanding. The time has come to invest together in the future and to promote the cultural diversity of South Tyrol as a strength.” The difficulties of the SVP in opening up to multilingual education and new pedagogical models, according to Team K, are evident in the criticism of bilingual school models, in the rejection of the recognized European School, in the hesitations on the International School and in the refusal to transfer the Ladin private school model, so praised by the SVP itself, to the German school. «The famous neuroscientist Gerald Hüther – states Alex Plonera provincial councillor for Team K – once told me in a conversation that change in schools must start with parents first and foremost. And parents have long been active in this issue and enrol their children in kindergartens of the other language group. The SVP’s education policy continues to try to prevent exactly what parents want for their children: a bilingual kindergarten. This then leads to problems that arise later in primary school, but also in the subsequent school levels, where our children end up with poor language skills, even in their native language. The responsibility in this case must be clearly assigned and must be sought in the outdated education policy of the SVP. Instead of preventing the step towards the future that was taken in Merano, the SVP should do exactly the opposite, and then evaluate the results objectively. The rhetoric of fear must give way to the – scientifically founded – awareness that the more languages we learn, the more we also improve our skills in our native language. Multilingual people are mentally more flexible, culturally more open and generally better equipped for the globalized world.”
2024-09-17 21:14:29