Sawt Falasteen - Too hot to study, say Italian teachers as school (finally) resumes

But just as frazzled parents sigh with relief, teachers say climate change is making it too hot to study safely, and some have called for classes to be postponed.

"The sun beating down on small classrooms creates a greenhouse effect," creating "intolerable temperatures", said Antonino Rinaldo, a school administrator in Sicily's Palermo.

Heatwaves are becoming more intense and frequent due to human-caused climate change, yet only six percent of Italy's schools have air conditioning, according to the education ministry.

While in some Italian regions temperatures are subsiding, conditions remain hot in the south.

Sweltering heat in May and June is a struggle too, particularly for students sitting end-of-year exams, according to the head of teachers' union ANIEF, Marcello Pacifico.

"We cannot continue with the same school calendar as 50 years ago when the climate has changed," Pacifico said.

The heat poses risks for teachers too, 55 percent of whom are aged 50 or over.

"If it is too hot, on top of endangering the health of our students, we can't guarantee the quality of the education" if students are unable to concentrate, Rinaldo said.

- Record holidays -

Back to school dates in Italy vary regionally, with lessons starting between September 8 and September 16.

In Sicily, where temperatures of 33C are expected next week, some schools have announced they will finish up at midday initially, Rinaldo told AFP.

Sardinia last year called for a national debate on adapting classrooms to climate change and other regions are also experiencing heat stress in schools.

Temperatures will hover around 30C in major cities Bari, Bologna, Florence and Naples as classes fill.

"We need to think long and hard, not only in Italy, but also in Europe, because climate change is not just happening in Italy," Pacifico said.

According to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Services, Europe has warmed twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, and temperatures on the continent have increased year-round.

"Summer-like conditions now occur earlier in spring and last longer into autumn," senior scientist at Copernicus Francesca Guglielmo told AFP.

But ANIEF's call to lengthen school holidays has prompted howls of protest from parents.

Italy currently has the longest summer holiday in Europe: 97 days, compared to 77 in Spain, 56 in France and 44 in Germany, according to the European Commissions' education information network Eurydice.

Over 76,000 people have signed a petition organised by the independent organisation We World to reduce summer holidays by a month instead.

Campaigners say the long break penalises children from working families who cannot afford summer camps or stimulating holidays.

- All year round -

Air conditioning has a climate cost but cooler classrooms would allow schools to stay open longer.

But Italy, which has the highest electricity prices of the major European economies, has been slower to take up AC than its southern European counterparts.

Nunzia Capasso, a secondary school teacher in Frattamaggiore near Naples, told AFP the heat was even more challenging for teenagers "who are also battling raging hormones".

"If classrooms are (as hot as) crematoriums and everything's falling to bits, it's easy to just suggest delaying the return to school," she said.

More than half of Italy's schools are old -- built between 1950 and 1992 -- and many are energy inefficient.

The complex where Capasso teaches was constructed in 2000, but with poor quality materials, "so it's too hot in summer and too cold in winter".

The schools in many underprivileged parts of the country play a key role, however, in "keeping children off the streets", she said.

"We live in a world where the risk is high not only of functional illiteracy, but also of children left to fend for themselves."

Instead, she urged the government and regional powers to invest in facilities that would allow schools to stay open "all year round".

W.Mansour--SF-PST