Lucia Azzolina (born 25 August 1982) is an Italian politician and teacher. She was the
Minister of Public Education during the
Conte II Cabinet
The second Conte government was the 66th government of the Italian Republic and the second government led by Giuseppe Conte. The government was sworn in on 5 September 2019 to 13 February 2021.
The government was supported by the anti-establish ...
.
Biography
Lucia Azzolina attended the "Leonardo da Vinci" high school in
Floridia
Floridia (; scn, Ciuriḍḍia ; from Latin "day of Flora" or the adjective ''floridus'' "florid") is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily (Italy).
Geography
Floridia lies west of Syracuse. Its principal industries are a ...
, then she graduated in History of Philosophy at the
University of Catania
The University of Catania ( it, Università degli Studi di Catania) is a university located in Catania, Sicily. Founded in 1434, it is the oldest university in Sicily, the 13th oldest in Italy, and the 29th oldest university in the world. With a ...
. She then attended the School of Specialization in secondary education (SSIS), for the qualification to teach history and philosophy.
After passing the final SSIS exam, she started teaching in the high schools of
La Spezia
La Spezia (, or , ; in the local Spezzino dialect) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy.
La Spezia is the second largest city ...
and
Sarzana
Sarzana (, ; lij, Sarzann-a) is a town, ''comune'' (municipality) and former short-lived Catholic bishopric in the Province of La Spezia, Liguria, Italy. It is east of Spezia, on the railway to Pisa, at the point where the railway to Parma diver ...
. She obtained a specialization in teaching support at the
University of Pisa
The University of Pisa ( it, Università di Pisa, UniPi), officially founded in 1343, is one of the oldest universities in Europe.
History
The Origins
The University of Pisa was officially founded in 1343, although various scholars place ...
. She then enrolled in the Faculty of Law of the
University of Pavia
The University of Pavia ( it, Università degli Studi di Pavia, UNIPV or ''Università di Pavia''; la, Alma Ticinensis Universitas) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one ...
, where she graduated in December 2013 with a thesis on administrative law, teaching simultaneously in the schools. In January 2014, she became a tenured teacher at the I.I.S "Quintino Sella" in
Biella
Biella (; pms, Biela; la, Bugella) is a city and ''comune'' in the northern Italian region of Piedmont, the capital of the province of the same name, with a population of 44,324 as of 31 December 2017. It is located about northeast of Turin an ...
. After graduating in Law, she carried out forensic practice dealing with school law.
For several years she was active within the
ANIEF
The ANIEF is a national trade union centre in Palermo, Italy.
President
* Marcello Pacifico
Marcello Pacifico (born 29 April 1977) is an Italian trade unionist
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as ...
(National Association of Teachers and Trainers), first in
Piedmont
it, Piemontese
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, and then operating in
Lombardy
Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...
. After resigning from the union, she returned to teach in 2017 at the I.I.S "Quintino Sella" in Biella, joining the staff of the school management.
In the general election of 2018, she was a candidate to the Chamber of Deputies in the "Piedmont 2" constituency among the ranks of the
Five Star Movement
The Five Star Movement ( it, Movimento 5 Stelle , M5S) is a political party in Italy. Its leader and president is Giuseppe Conte, Prime Minister of Italy from 2018 until 2021. The M5S was founded on 4 October 2009 by Beppe Grillo, a comedian an ...
. Initially she was not elected, however, on 20 March 2018, the Court of Cassation, following the exhaustion of M5S candidates in Campania, which were lower than the assigned seats, assigned the vacant seat in the "Campania 1" constituency to Lucia Azzolina, who was then proclaimed Deputy of the XVIII legislature.
On 13 September 2019 she was appointed Undersecretary of State to the Ministry of Education, University and Research in the
Conte II Government. On 28 December 2019, following the resignation of Minister
Lorenzo Fioramonti
Lorenzo Fioramonti (born 29 April 1977, in Rome) is a political scientist and Former Minister of Education, University and Research of the Italian RepublicFioramontiis a professor at the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences of the Universit ...
, Prime Minister
Giuseppe Conte
Giuseppe Conte (; born 8 August 1964) is an Italian jurist, academic, and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy, prime minister of Italy from June 2018 to February 2021. He has been the president of the Five Star Movement (M5S) sin ...
announced her imminent appointment as
Minister of Public Education. On 10 January 2020 she was sworn in and officially took office.
In September 2021 she became head teacher of the school "Istituto Comprensivo Emanuele Giaracà" in
Syracuse
Syracuse may refer to:
Places Italy
*Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa''
*Province of Syracuse
United States
*Syracuse, New York
**East Syracuse, New York
**North Syracuse, New York
*Syracuse, Indiana
* Syracuse, Kansas
*Syracuse, Miss ...
.
Controversies
In May 2019, the weekly ''
L'Espresso
''L'Espresso'' () is an Italian weekly news magazine. It is one of the two most prominent Italian weeklies; the other is ''Panorama''. Since 2022 it has been published by BFC Media.
History and profile
One of Italy's foremost newsmagazines, ''l ...
'' published a series of articles highlighting her participation in the competition as a school manager, published on 24 November 2017 and held between 2018 and 2019 (ranking at 2542th out of a total of 2900 places available in a competition attended by 35 thousand teachers), despite being vested with the position of member of the Parliamentary Education Commission of the Chamber. To criticisms of a feared conflict of interest, Azzolina replied stating that it was a competition for which she had been preparing since 2017.
On 27 December 2019, Massimo Arcangeli, President of the Commission for access to the role of school manager who judged the deputy's oral test, doubted the ability of the same in being able to carry out the role of Minister of Education, on the basis of test results. The Commission chaired by Arcangeli himself awarded 80.5 / 100 points to the written test and 75/100 points to the oral test.
On 11 January 2020, again Massimo Arcangeli, in the newspaper ''
La Repubblica
''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnoldo ...
'', sustained that some paragraphs of the thesis presented by her at the time for the qualification to teach would have been copied from specialist texts.
La ministra dell’Istruzione e la tesi copiata dai manuali
/ref> After the news was published, opposition parties, including the League
League or The League may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band
* ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football
Sports
* Sports league
* Rugby league, full contact footba ...
, asked for his resignation from government office. Lucia Azzolina replied to the accusations noting that it is neither a thesis nor a plagiarism, the written being a simple end-of-trainee report.
Electoral history
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Azzolina, Lucia
Living people
1982 births
Conte II Cabinet
Education ministers of Italy
Five Star Movement politicians
Women government ministers of Italy
ANIEF
People from Syracuse, Sicily
Deputies of Legislature XVIII of Italy
University of Pavia alumni
University of Catania alumni
21st-century Italian women politicians
Women members of the Chamber of Deputies (Italy)