In the South, about 650 thousand students of state primary schools, 79% of the total, do not benefit from any canteen service, while in the Center-North there are 700 thousand students without canteens, 46%. Bad also on the gyms front: 550 thousand primary school pupils in the South, 66%, do not attend schools equipped with a gym, against 54% in the Center-North.
This is what can be seen from the advances in the Svimez 2022 Report, which underlines the need to “use the NRP to bridge the gap in social infrastructure, starting with education”.
Puglia is an exception in the South with a good number of gyms. Strong delay instead in Campania (170 thousand students without, 73% of the total), Sicily (81%), Calabria (83%). The study also reports that almost one in three southern minors (31.35%), in the 6 to 17 year-old group, is overweight, compared to one in five in the Center-North.
Due to the lack of infrastructures, only 18% of pupils in the South access school full-time, compared to 48% in the Center-North. Primary school pupils in the South attend on average four hours of school less per week than those in the Center-North. Considering an entire school cycle (five years), the pupils of Molise and Sicily lose about 1,000 hours, which corresponds to about the total number of hours of a year of primary school, Svimez notes.