High school and university students on Monday began a second week of local marches, strikes and sit-ins across Italy to protest against a raft of government reform measures in the education sector currently being discussed by the Senate.
University professors and teachers joined the protests, staging outdoor lessons in squares in Rome, Naples, Bari and Florence, while marches by school students disrupted traffic in Milan, Rome, Palermo and Potenza.
Students said protests would intensify over the next two days ahead of the Senate's approval of the reforms, expected on Wednesday, while an official nationwide protest called by unions is set to take place on Thursday.
Education Minister Maria Stella Gelmini told Corriere della Sera on Monday that the government would not back down from the reforms, which unions claim would see cuts of eight billion euros in the sector.
Gelmini played down the protests, saying only ''a few thousand'' of Italy's nine million students were protesting and that ''very few'' sit-ins were being staged in university departments.
As the second week of disruption to classes and lectures got under way, some students began an anti-protest backlash amid fears that they would not be ready to take exams or graduate in time to avoid paying extra fees.
Groups calling themselves I Want To Study and Have A Sit-In At Your House appeared on Internet social networking site Facebook, while in Florence 10,000 postcards were printed to be sent to the dean of the university asking for lectures to resume.
The backlash came several days after Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi also asserted that those who wished to study should have the right to do so and that the government would not tolerate sit-ins in schools and universities.
In addition to cost cuts, the government reforms propose a return to a single-teacher system for most subjects for children in elementary schools, and grades for behaviour for secondary school kids in an effort to stamp out bullying.
At the university level, it includes a reduction of degree courses available as well as measures to allow universities to become foundations in order to top up public funding with private investments.
Opposition politicians claim the package is motivated by financial requirements rather than reforms that would benefit the sector.
