Back to school amid inequalities: less than half of students have a gym and a canteen

Starting next week, all Italian school children will return to class from region to region. In the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, they have already started on September 5th, while Trentino will start on the 9th. But is the school ready to welcome them to the best of its ability? The answer, unfortunately, is no (once again). This year too, the inequalities between North and South are many and worrying. This is clearly highlighted by the international organization Save The Childrenin the report Unequal Schools. The Pnrr’s interventions on canteens, full-time and gyms, with an analysis of the distribution of investments and interventions of the Pnrr (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) at provincial level. The data show a reality that does not seem to be able to change over the years, despite the investments: the overall Pnrr investment for the Ministry of Education and Merit is equal to 17 billion euros. Only 2 out of 5 primary school children have access to full-time. Less than half of primary and secondary school students have access to a gym and a canteen. “From the analysis of the PNRR projects launched to date, there is a risk that many Italian provinces where families in socioeconomic disadvantage are concentrated will remain further behind, without reducing inequalities”, explains Save The Children.

In particular, while the Central and Northern regions have the provinces with the greatest access (50%) to canteens for primary and lower secondary school pupils, most of the Southern provinces are below the national average (which is 36.9%, considering both primary and lower secondary schools). “The problem we face as a country is not only managing to guarantee the spending schedule, but ensuring that the PNRR resources actually reach the territories where boys and girls experience the greatest difficulties in their educational path”, he explains Raffaela Milan, Director of Research at Save the Children Italy. «The PNRR represents a unique opportunity to overcome the inequalities in educational provision between north and south, between urban centers and internal areas. But from the analysis of the distribution of resources and the interventions launched to date, the objective of rebalancing seems to have been achieved only partially».

On the 975 interventions of the PNRR (present on the ReGIS platform in June 2024) launched to expand the offer of school canteensfrom the analysis by Save The Children it emerges that 38.1% of the resources were allocated to the Southern regions and the Islands, although these resources finance approximately 50% of the total projects. But it is in the areas where the canteen and full-time schooling reach fewer students that the highest percentage of students from families with a low socioeconomic level: they are 26.4% in the provinces where less than 10% of students use the canteen (compared to 17.2% of those where over 65% of students access the canteen).

«This is an alarm bell that must push us to carry out as soon as possible an impact analysis on educational poverty of all the investments of mission 4 of the PNRR, dedicated to education, both ongoing and planned”continues Raffela Milano. «In the most disadvantaged territories, it is necessary to integrate the resources of the PNRR with other available funds, to guarantee an offer of educational services to all minors. At the same time, having reached this stage of the process, all institutions, for the different levels of responsibility, must equip themselves to guarantee the coverage of the operating costs of the new services being activated thanks to the PNRR, the canteens as well as the nursery schools, without the increase in current expenditure falling only on the most virtuous municipalities or on families, and without running the risk that the new spaces, once ready, remain closed due to a lack of human and economic resources, as unfortunately has already happened many times in the past».

For this reason, Save the Children asks the government to define and finance Essential Levels of Performance (LEP) that guarantee equal educational opportunities, starting from access to the canteen and full-time primary school, ensuring the free canteen service for children in poverty.