SAN MARINO – Dearest Students, Managers, Teachers, Staff of the Schools of the Republic, Parents and Families, the classrooms and school desks are once again full of people from today.
The Regency believes that they are not just physical spaces for learning, but above all symbols of sharing and the beating heart of our Community because the future is forged here, because, here too, “good Citizens” are formed.
School, of any level, is the engine of civil growth and the primary place of dialogue, inclusion, openness and discovery.
School is movement. It doesn’t stop. It is a path to walk together, young people and adults.
Dearest Students,
we know that the start of a new school year has always represented a moment of particular emotions, curiosity, hopes but, at times, also fear linked to a new beginning. Experience this new path, not as a simple duty. The school offers you the tools to understand the world, to develop free and critical thinking, to cultivate your passions, as well as to forge bonds of friendship that will accompany you forever.
Making the school system increasingly stronger on an educational level is a primary task of society and we believe that it is a collective commitment because the future of our Community depends on the quality of the educational system and adequate resources and particular attention must be allocated to it.
And this is precisely the challenge to be taken up: human capital is the primary value in which to invest.
We live in a rapidly changing world. The processes of knowledge and new opportunities do not stop, but they must be governed and oriented towards the common good. We think above all about issues such as artificial intelligence and digital. This is why it is very important to teach one mindset in which the capacity for analysis, creative thinking, synthesis, the ability to reason and solve problems are able to intertwine.
In no civilized country should education be a privilege.
For this reason, dear young people, think that education and training are an extraordinary opportunity.
Be grateful to your teachers and to the school: they are the ones who provide you with the tools to become the citizens of tomorrow and make you discover the history and roots of this Republic of ours. We express heartfelt thanks to all the teachers for their competence and dedication in the delicate educational work and in accompanying the path of human and cultural growth of our young people.
We believe that the educational pact is also made by the complicity between families and teachers and this must always be defended and nurtured with patience and trust.
To you, Girls and boys, we send our heartfelt wishes for a fruitful school year and, on this particular day, we want to accompany our greeting with two photographic images.
The first is in black and white. In it we see the children of a small town in the Apennines – perhaps with their teacher – hanging from a rope on a pulley. Suspended in the void, they cross a river to go to school. Everyday. Because school was the only bridge to cling to the future.
The second photograph is in color, in Papua New Guinea. It is from the present day and is on the UNICEF website. In it we see little Lorna and other children crossing the river rapids with a pot sticking out of the water, to keep the food dry. Once across the river, on the other side, the students change out of their wet clothes to put on their school uniform. Everyday. Sun and rain because you can only get to school by swimming.
Two stories far and near, poised between courage and necessity, where there are no bridges over the water, but only the will to learn.
For this reason, to paraphrase, our wish today is to begin this school day and face all the others to come “swimming in the air of knowledge”, with curiosity and courage, leaving space for everything that will cross and shape you.
As has already been quoted: “Studying and breathing doesn’t fill, it makes space”.
Dearest Students, Managers, Teachers, School Staff, Parents and Families.
Good work and good journey to everyone.
San Marino, 15 September 2026/1726 dFR
Photo by Franco Gremignani_ The children of Guiglia suspended on the Panaro to go to school
