Two big obstacles confront the reform-minded Italian government, headed by Matteo Renzi: a mistrust of competition and selection, and fear of change that may worsen existing problems, like nepotism. Both impulses are threatening a plan to upgrade Italian education.

The country’s current school results are mixed. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) organised by the OECD, a rich-countries club, compares the performance of 15-year-olds in maths, reading and science. In the most recent 2012 survey, Italy’s teenagers were below average in all three, but not drastically so. Yet in another OECD survey, Italy was lowest or second-lowest in a group of 20 countries assessed for proficiency in literacy and numeracy among 16-24-year-olds.

Whatever the base, improvements could boost productivity and perhaps reduce Italy’s youth unemployment rate of 43 percent. Yet a Bill to reform the system has prompted three national strikes and could prompt defections from Renzi’s troubled centre-left Democratic Party (PD).

On May 20, the proposed law survived its first big parliamentary test when it was approved in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house. It is yet to be endorsed by the Senate. Among other things, the Bill offers financial rewards for the best teachers; promotes collaboration between schools and workplaces; allocates €4 billion (Rs.28,833 crore) to erect and fix school buildings; and gives teachers €500 (Rs.36,000) a year to spend on books, software and museum visits so as to keep themselves up to speed.

But the heart of the reform, and its most divisive part, would do away with an army of supply teachers, hired piecemeal over the years, united only by their insecurity. More than 100,000 teachers would get permanent posts. But, to the dismay of unions, another 50,000 would be left without work.

Stefano Fassina, a left-winger who quit his job as a junior finance minister last year in protest at Renzi’s approach, says that unless the Bill is radically altered, “my career in the PD is over”. With other sensitive reforms yet to be steered through parliament, the prime minister can ill afford defections. His government has accepted several changes to the Bill. It has circumscribed the school heads’ new powers and dropped the plan for schools to receive funds via tax returns.

But the prime minister still insists on cutting the number of supply teachers. Refusing to change, he says, would mean treating the educational system as a “social-security net”. Unless he yields, many aspirant teachers will see their hopes dashed. But that may be the price of necessary change.