Italy's Renzi wins Senate confidence vote on schools reform

ROME (Reuters) - Prime Minister Matteo Renzi won a vote of confidence on a fiercely-contested schools reform bill on Thursday, the latest of several such votes he has called to push through reforms aimed at boosting Italy's sluggish economy.

Theoretically Renzi, whose popularity has slumped in recent months, would have been forced to resign if he lost the confidence vote, but this was considered extremely unlikely.

There were 159 votes in favour and 112 against.

Opposition parties and the left wing of Renzi's own Democratic Party (PD) had proposed thousands of amendments.

The bill includes increasing powers for school managers over hiring and promotions, offering tax breaks for private schools, and permanently hiring supply teachers.

Since the plan was presented in March, it has been vehemently opposed by the centre-left government's traditional allies in the teachers' unions, as well as by the parliamentary opposition and a minority bloc in Renzi's own PD.

Renzi says the reform, which would offer pay rises to teachers based on merit rather than seniority, would improve an education system often blamed for contributing to Italy's economic weakness.

Italy spends less on education as a proportion of national output than its main peers in the euro zone, according to Eurostat data, and has one of the region's highest drop-out rates.

Confidence votes are often employed by governments in Italy as a way of pushing through legislation, because they truncate discussion over amendments. Renzi's 16-month-old administration has resorted to them particularly frequently.

The bill will now return to the lower house Chamber of Deputies for a final reading. Renzi, who has a far more comfortable majority in the lower house, aims to have it approved in the first half of July.

(Reporting by Isla Binnie, Roberto Landucci and Gavin Jones; Editing by Andrew Roche)