“Didacta Italy fair, which this year we wanted to dedicate to Maria Montessori on the 70th anniversary of her death – declared the president of Firenze Fiera, Lorenzo Becattini, at the inaugural ceremony – is growing and becoming more beautiful and bigger, thanks to the consolidated partnership between Italy and Germany and teamwork between Firenze Fiera, INDIRE, the Ministry of Education and all the institutional and cultural realities of the sector. I take this opportunity to officially announce that Didacta Italy will have a sort of spin off event in Sicily from 20 to 22 October 2022″.

“Let us not forget that the school is the sector that has suffered more than any other the weight and sacrifices due to of the pandemic” added the Mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella. “I would like to recall here the commitment of our Administration and the Metropolitan City for the school sector. We have an investment package of 100 million euros thanks also to the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience, to deeply renew the entire school-education infrastructure of our country. We must make of Florence and of Italy in general, a great country that imports talents from all over the world, and to do so we also need initiatives like this”.

“Didacta is an event that honours Florence and Tuscany and is taking on a not only national but also international dimension. As a Region, we focus much on school construction. In February, we made an anticipation of the allocation of the social cohesion fund, and we dedicated 50% of the 108 million we had in Tuscany, to schools. Didacta is all this, to debate on these issues, to have opportunities to meet. We make a commitment: to give it more and more international scope”, was the comment of the president of the Regional Council, Eugenio Giani.

“We have all seen that the world of education has changed dramatically in recent years, schools are becoming more and more virtual,” said Theodor Niehaus, president of Didacta Germany. “Didacta is the opportunity to be able to talk about all this. We must prepare the younger generations for the world of work and for what will be the skills of the future. This is a key element for the education industry “.

“Didacta is back after two and a half years, two years in which the world of work has changed, the world of school, our socialisation, and the economy has changed”, said Giuseppe Salvini, secretary-general of the Chamber of Commerce of Florence. “A world of work that starts again even if there is always the paradox of 41% of professional figures that are difficult to find, 70% for profiles connected with the digital sector; 60% of workers specialized in the fashion textiles, clothing and footwear sectors, 50% of health technicians. There is therefore a need for moments of confrontation like this in which the school sector confront itself with the world of work, in which orientation is also provided. As the Chamber of Commerce, the House of Enterprises and the House of Economy we consider an event as Didacta fundamental to take stock of the school system, of innovation and also of the intersection and alignment between young people, the world of school and present and future skills and work”.

Tomorrow, Saturday 21, at 10, in the Sala della Scherma, the conference States General of Education: ITS, the new higher technical education and the world of work will take place, with the participation of the Minister of Education, Patrizio Bianchi. There will be also Mariastella Gelmini, Minister for Regional Affairs and Autonomies.

Among the speakers, the president of the 7th Senate Education and Culture Commission, Riccardo Nencini and Cristina Giachi, president of the Tuscany Regional Education Commission. Among the interventions there were also those of Rosa Maria Di Giorgi, Gabriele Toccafondi and Valentina Aprea, members of the 7th Education Commission of the Chamber of Deputies and Guido Torrielli, president of the ITS Italia Foundation Network Association.

Among the other appointments scheduled for tomorrow, at 1 pm there will be a workshop in the Humanities Department, entitled “The future has an ancient heart”, in which a short talk will be proposed that will illustrate the experience gained in a suburban school in the hinterland of Milan, thanks to the inspiration and support received from participation in national networks, in particular, Avanguardie Educative, Biblòh! and Jazz Mood Schools (JMS). We will talk about transformed learning environments, libraries brought to the centre of the teaching experience as multifunctional spaces also open to the territory, music inside the school library as an integrated resource with different areas of educational action (linguistic, artistic, relational and civic).

Finally, at 3 pm, in the Art and Theatre department, teachers will have the opportunity to participate in the workshop “Storytelling Rap – Hip-hop Education at school”. The workshop aims to offer a first knowledge of the elements of Hip-hop culture and to allow teachers to experiment with writing exercises and group games.

Our pictures of the first day: