Abstract

Selecting trained and motivated teachers, and enabling them to play their complex and unique role, through guarantees of employment continuity and wages up to the commitment required, is a matter of great importance. Nevertheless, in Italy teacher selection system only seldom used selective public contests and always failed to give priority to competence requirements, providing instead an opportunity for many aspiring teachers to achieve teaching qualifications through pro forma exams. This article reconstructs the history of teacher recruitment, analysing a muddled legislation which has produced much more aspiring teachers than those really needed in public schools, thus creating precarious jobs, still difficult to remove