Government reforms to secondary school education will be put off until September 2010, the education ministry said Thursday after a meeting with unions.
The ministry said the decision had been made so that ''schools and families could be properly informed on the changes and innovations'', which had been due to begin in September 2009, adding that discussions would open on the application of the new rules.
Among the reforms are an increase in the number of hours pupils spend studying English, science and mathematics, greater links between schools and the demands of the world of work and a shake-up of the so-called 'technical high schools', where the number of courses available will drop from 39 to 11.
The meeting also established that a requirement for elementary schools to return to a system that foresees a single teacher for most subjects - and which was approved in a parliamentary decree in October - will be activated ''on the request of the families''.
In addition, the government agreed to establish a permanent committee to safeguard the welfare of teachers on temporary contracts.
Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini said she would present the reform package to the cabinet next week.
''This is a proposal that can be defined as historic,'' Gelmini said, describing it as an ''organic reorganisation of the Italian education system''.
The minister confirmed that reforms to primary school education will be put into action in September 2009.
Gelmini has been under heavy fire from high-school students and teachers for several months after she introduced a decree requiring the return to the single-teacher system in elementary schools which also reintroduced grades for behaviour for secondary school kids in an effort to stamp out bullying.
Schools and universities have also been up in arms over heavy budget cuts to the education sector.
The secretary-general of the FLC-CGIL union, Mimmo Pantaleo, said progress made between unions and the ministry were not sufficient to call off a general strike over the government's economic policy on Friday.
''The cuts planned remain like a millstone,'' he said.
