In the next few years, Italy will have to use part of the incoming European funds to build nursery schools and kindergartens, but the ministerial tender published for this purpose already presents a series of problems. This is supported by the Parliamentary Budget Office in a recent analysis, underlining that the issue represents “an interesting test case for the component of Pnrr which passes through the channel of tenders for local authorities".
At present, nursery schools and kindergartens are distributed in a heterogeneous way among the various areas of the country and the service is almost always absent in small municipalities. To resolve these difficulties, the State plans to create 265 new jobs by 2025 and thus reach the European target of 33% coverage in the age group between three and 36 months.
However, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office, the announcement published on 2 December by the Ministry of Education is open to criticism for two reasons.
CRITERIA FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS TO THE REGIONS
The first concerns the ways in which the distribution of funds to the Regions is established. The ceilings for the single regional territories are determined by the combination of two criteria:
- the current gap in the provision of services, on the basis of which 75% of the total amount is attributed;
- the number of children under the age of two by 2035 (Istat estimates), on the basis of which 25% of the funds are allocated.
The PBO believes that the weights assigned to the two criteria are "determined in a discretionary manner, without any apparent foundation". But the most serious problems concern the first point. First of all, the regional gaps are not measured with respect to the 33% target, but, who knows why, with respect to the levels of Valle d'Aosta, the region with the most nursery schools and kindergartens in relation to children. Secondly, the gaps are calculated at regional level, with the result that in some Regions the Municipalities with many kindergartens compensate for the shortcomings of the others, while in other Regions this does not happen. This creates a disparity between Municipalities with the same level of coverage but located in Regions with different coverage rates.
CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING PROJECTS
The second problematic front concerns the criteria for evaluating the projects presented by the territorial bodies in the ambit of the regional plafonds. There are five in all and each assigns a score. The first, which is more important, refers to "the absence or serious shortage of public and private educational services". It is a pity that, this time, the gaps in the coverage rate are no longer calculated with respect to the Valle d'Aosta, but with respect to the achievement of the 33% objective. In comparison with the phase of allocating resources, there is therefore a difference in method which is difficult to explain.
Another criterion for evaluating projects has to do with "the increase in the level of coverage in the proposing body". This too "raises perplexity", writes the Upb, because there is the risk of attributing the same score to two very different types of Municipalities: those that already offer the service and are increasing it and those in which the service is totally absent and are places created from nothing (regardless of the number).
Finally, "among the evaluation criteria - the analysis continues - there is no recognition of a higher score in the case of projects presented by aggregations of small Municipalities which favors the initiative of those bodies which have a population size of children in kindergarten age too small even for the activation of a baby nursery”.
The Parliamentary Budget Office therefore suggests using "more transparent and immediately interpretable methodologies".
