Mauro Canu

Mauro Canu died during the night of 23 to 24 October 2026, aged 60. Reports said he died of an incurable illness; the specific condition was not made public, and the place of death was not reported.

The Buonarroti Volta institute announced his death on its Facebook page on the morning of 24 October: "Increduli e con profondo dolore comunichiamo che a causa di un male incurabile, stanotte ci ha lasciato il nostro Dirigente Prof. Mauro Canu" (In disbelief and with deep sorrow we announce that, because of an incurable illness, our head teacher Prof. Mauro Canu left us last night). The school, its page marked in mourning, also wrote: "To Mauro Canu, Professor and Head Teacher, who passed on an autumn day after a life dedicated to the school," signed by its students, teaching staff and support staff.

His death was reported the same day by Casteddu Online and L'Unione Sarda. Funeral arrangements had not been announced at the time of the first reports.

Details of Mauro Canu's birth and family have not been published. He attended the ITC "Musinu" commercial technical institute in Thiesi, in the province of Sassari, from 1980 to 1985, earning the diploma of ragioniere e perito commerciale (accountant and commercial expert) with a mark of 60 out of 60. He then studied Economics and Commerce at the University of Cagliari, graduating with honours in March 1994. He later completed postgraduate courses in the inclusion of pupils with different abilities and in business economics and management. He did his compulsory military service between 1992 and 1993, partly at the military district office in Cagliari, and briefly worked as an office employee for a Cagliari company before turning to teaching.

Canu began teaching in February 1996 and taught in Sardinian secondary schools until August 2019. His subjects included business economics, law and economics, applied mathematics, economic geography and information technology, and he was qualified to teach several of them.

Between September 2009 and August 2018 he served as a support teacher (docente di sostegno) for pupils with disabilities, holding a specialist qualification obtained through Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

In September 2019 he became dirigente scolastico of the Istituto di Istruzione Superiore "Michelangelo Buonarroti - Alessandro Volta" in Guspini. The institute, which includes a technical institute for economics, has sites in Guspini, Villacidro, Serramanna and Arbus. Among his best known decisions was a rule, introduced years before similar measures became common in Italian schools, that pupils must switch off and hand in their mobile phones before lessons began. According to L'Unione Sarda, the choice did not cause the conflict some expected and led to visible improvements in relationships among students.

Little about Mauro Canu's private life has been made public, and reports of his death did not name surviving relatives. Those who worked with him described a man who believed in rules and in making sure they were respected, and who saw the school as a place to pass on values that pupils would carry beyond the classroom.

Canu is remembered at the Buonarroti Volta institute as a head teacher who combined strict standards with close attention to students and families. His early decision to keep mobile phones out of lessons is the policy most often recalled, together with the care for vulnerable pupils that colleagues linked to his years as a support teacher. Casteddu Online wrote that he followed his students with love, "like a father, strict for their own good".