Students in Rome are protesting against closure of schools
Students in Rome held a sit-in protest outside their school on Monday, demanding schools be reopened across the country. Recently, 20 regions in the country extended school closures in a bid to limit coronavirus infections. Take a look below
Schools remain shut
Italian schools reopened in mid-September after a six-month stop - the longest in Europe - but face-to-face lessons in high schools across the country were gradually suspended again a month later due to a new surge in cases.
"School is crucial. We are asking for a safe return to face-to-face activities," student Emanuele Santori said during a demonstration in Rome outside his Cavour school under the shadow of the Colosseum.
Fellow pupil Ilaria Rinattieri added: "It is true we are young, but it is also true we will be the next electoral voters, workers and the citizens of tomorrow."
(Photograph:Reuters)
Regional heads in Italy have immense power
Italy's powerful regional heads can overturn the central government's orders on certain issues, including education.
"I have done everything I could do, the schools are ready to start but the regions have the ability to reopen them or not," Education Minister Lucia Azzolina told state broadcaster RAI. "Distance learning is not working any more."
(Photograph:Reuters)
Post-Christmas measures still in place
After the Christmas holidays, Italy returned to a three-tier system which allows for different measures to be applied to different regions according to infection levels.
"Linking schools reopening to the zones system or to the whim of regional governors makes every decision unstable," parents committee 'A Scuola!' (To School!) wrote in a letter to newspaper Corriere della Sera. "As parents, teachers and citizens, we are tired."
(Photograph:Reuters)
