With resolution No. 194 of 23 April 2024, the Campania Regional Council approved the school calendar for the 2024-2025 school year, also intervening about religious celebrations.

On this matter, Legislative Decree No. 297 of 1994 - Consolidation Act of the current legislative provisions on education, relating to schools of every order and grade, includes among the competences of the school board ‘the adaptation of the school calendar to specific environmental needs’ (Article 10, paragraph 3).

Moreover, Presidential Decree no. 275 of 1999 regulating school autonomy states that it is ‘a guarantee of freedom of teaching and cultural pluralism and is embodied in the planning and implementation of education, training and instruction interventions aimed at the development of the human person, adapted to the different contexts, to the demands of families and to the specific characteristics of the subjects involved, in order to guarantee their educational success, consistently with the general aims and objectives of the education system and with the need to improve the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process’ (Article 1(2)).

In this regard, in addition to incorporating the holidays (including religious holidays) defined by national legislation, in the Resolution of the Regional Council of Campania no. 194/2024, it was provided that ‘for needs related to the specificity of the school, with the specification that, in the presence of a significant student component belonging to different ethnic and/or religious communities, as part of the planning of the celebrations referred to in paragraph 2 above, it is possible to use one of these days for the celebration of important anniversaries of those ethnic groups and/or religions, following appropriate consultation with the representatives of the various components of the school (teachers, students, parents, etc.. ), and notifying the competent offices of the Region and the Regional Education Office’ [1].

In application of this provision, the celebration of the anniversaries may replace one of the following events.

(a) 27 January, designated by Resolution 60/7 of the United Nations General Assembly as a day in commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust and recognized by Law No 211 of 2000 as a ‘day of remembrance’ in order to commemorate the Shoah (extermination of the Jewish people), the racial laws, the Italian persecution of Jewish citizens, and the Italians who suffered deportation, imprisonment, and death;

1. b) 20 February, established by Law No 92 of 2004 as a day of remembrance in commemoration of the victims of the Foibe massacres and the Julian-Dalmatian exodus;
2. c) 19 March ‘festa della legalità’, established by the Campania Region in 2012 in memory of the killing of Don Peppino Diana, as a day of commitment and remembrance.

Raffaele Santoro

[1] Giunta Regionale della Campania, Delibera 23 aprile 2024, n. 194 – D.lgs. n. 297 del 16/04/1994. Approvazione calendario scolastico as 2024-2025, n. 3.5, in Bollettino Ufficiale della Regione Campania n. 34 del 29 aprile 2024.