What condition are the public school buildings, what are the most widespread shortcomings and how many sums it allocates the PNRR for their redevelopment and safety? These are the main themes at the center of the new CDP Think Tank brief entitled "School construction and the local area: where are the greatest needs?".
The study analyzes the structural endowment of Italian schools through four dimensions aggregated in a Structural Deficiency Index (ICS): presence of architectural barriers, lack of measures to reduce energy consumption, absence of a heating system and deficiencies in anti-seismic design. The results show that, on average, single Italian school buildings have only one of the four criticalities analyzed and that those with the greatest problems are found in peripheral areas and in municipalities with a more difficult financial situation.
In detail, 15% of schools are deficient in at least two dimensions out of four, with the greatest criticalities concentrated in the South and concerning the absence of measures to reduce energy consumption. However, the study shows that the need for infrastructural interventions is not distributed homogeneously in the South.
“Areas of Sardinia, Puglia and Basilicata show, in fact, a positive average situation. Particular critical issues were found, however, in Calabria and Sicily, where 32 school buildings are concentrated with structural deficiencies in all four dimensions”, reads the report.
From a financial point of view, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan allocates 5,4 billion euros for school construction, of which: 3,9 billion for the redevelopment of the building stock, 800 million for the construction of new schools and 700 million for the upgrading of canteens and gyms.
According to the study, "future interventions on school construction that will be carried out also thanks to the important resources provided by the PNRR will have to take into consideration four factors: the reduction of the school population, the evolution of teaching needs, environmental sustainability and research of a rebalancing of social and territorial differences".
