Nurseries, Svimez: “The Pnrr will not bridge the territorial gaps”
The purpose of territorial cohesion of the “Pnrr of the school” it is at risk. The ministerial criteria for allocating resources at the regional level did not take into account the internal heterogeneity of the individual regions in terms of investment needs. The system of competitive tenders has often penalized territories with a lack of services and facilities (full-time, gyms, canteens), also due to the weakness of the administrations. The risk is that territorial inequalities will increase, especially within the South itself.
Continue to monitor Svimez on the appropriations and implementation of the Pnrr. The latest issue of Svimez information (“Crèches and school infrastructures: the Pnrr will not bridge the territorial gaps”) is dedicated to the issue of services for early childhood and education: sectors affected by deep territorial differences in the provision of adequate infrastructures, in the quantity and quality of services offered to children and pupils, in the outcomes of learning and training processes.
What is needed to increase female employment
The quality and adequate endowment of scholastic and early childhood infrastructures are strategic elements for the reduction of territorial differences in the female participation in the labor market and in the accumulation of human capital. Al Nord, the female employment rate between the ages of 25 and 49 drops from 85% for women without children to 66% for mothers with children under the age of 6 (-22%). In the Sud it drops even more markedly: from 58% to just 38% for women with children of pre-school age. Partly due to the lack of childcare services, motherhood in the southern regions reduces the employment rate of young women by over a third.
The study provides a first snapshot of the Pnrr’s ability to favor territorial rebalancing with reference to five lines of investment: nursery schools, canteens, gyms, redevelopment of school buildings and construction of new schools. The analyzes are based on a reconstruction of the regional allotment decrees and the rankings of the projects of the Municipalities admitted to funding. The projects financed in each Italian province were compared with the relative indicators of need.
Territorial gaps in the education chain
In the Southern regions all the indicators considered record significantly lower values than in the Centre-North, but with profound differences within the macro-areas. The most marked regional differences are observed for the availability of school canteens, the absence of which limits the possibility of offering full-time work. Less than 25% of southern primary school pupils attend schools with canteens (against about 60% in the Centre-North); less than 32% of children in the case of kindergartens (against about 59% in the Centre-North).
The situations with the most deficits concern Sicily and Campania, with percentages below 15%. This figure is very worrying if compared to the 66.8% reached by Emilia-Romagna and the 69.6% in Liguria. The South also suffers from a serious delay in the supply of early childhood services: the southern regions that are furthest from the LEP target of authorized places to be reached by 2027 (33% of the population aged between 3 and 36 months ) are Campania (6.5), Sicily (8.2), Calabria (9) and Molise (9.3)