ITALY: SCHOOL OPENS TEACHING ITALIAN & EGYPTIAN CURRICULA

ITALY: CONTROVERSIAL ARAB SCHOOL OPENS

Milan, 10 Oct. (AKI) - Milan, Europe's capital of integration in 2007, is at the centre of a nationwide controversy over an Arab school detractors say will boost the segregation of the Arabic-speaking community in Italy's financial capital and supporters claim will champion integration. The elementary and middle high school, which will reportedly follow both the Italian and Egyptian curricula, opened on Monday though it had yet to gain the proper certification from both local and national authorities.

So as 130 students, mostly of Egyptian origin, started their lessons at the 'Naguib Mahfouz' school, education minister Giuseppe Fioroni protested on Tuesday that no institution could open in Italy without the proper authorisation, while centre-right majority parties in the local conservative government called for its immediate closure.

The problem, both detractors and supporters acknowledge, is that the whole issue has become a politically charged one - testing Italian attitutes to Muslim immigrants. Though the school claims to be secular and to also follow the Italian programme, its pupils mostly come from religious, conservative families who refuse to send them to Italian schools.

The school's director, Italian retired professor Livia Cerboni, says local authorities have used red tape to delay the school's opening and that she and the children's parents - who claim to run and fund the school on their own - had no choice but to start lessons if they did not want the students to miss a year.

"We asked for the proper authorisation for the school on 18 July and authorities told us we needed another certificate. We presented it on 28 September and they said it was OK but still didn't give us permission to open," Cerboni told Adnkronos International (AKI)."Technicians sent by the local government came eight times to control everything was in order but never gave us the green light. We followed the laws and since no one told us anything was amiss, we opened."

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Hussein El Belashouni, a 40-year-old Egyptian who has lived for the past 20 years in Milan, says he wants his children to learn about their family's culture.

"It is important for us to know that our children will maintain ties with our country of origin," said the entrepreneur, who claims all his children speak perfect Italian and are perfectly integrated. "We like to think that when they grow up they can decide to attend university in Egypt."


Ahhhhhhhhhhh MULTI-CULTURALISM, how sweet it is...

Pertinent Links:

1) ITALY: CONTROVERSIAL ARAB SCHOOL OPENS