The ‘Homework@Home’ project to tackle educational poverty: “more perseverance and fewer dropouts”

Greater consistency in attendance, fewer dropouts and an ever-closer partnership between schools, universities and the local community. During the school year just ended, 285 university students supported 554 pupils from 20 lower secondary schools in Piedmont, Lazio, Campania and Sicily throughout their studies, thanks to Compiti@casa: the project selected by Con i Bambini as part of the Fund to Combat Child Educational Poverty and also supported by the De Agostini Foundation, the Alberto and Franca Riva Foundation, the UniCredit Foundation and the Fondazione Comunità Novarese.

Through an online tutoring service provided by trained and paid university students, the three-year project devised by the De Agostini Foundation and the University of Turin aims to provide academic support to boys and girls in lower secondary school who are experiencing learning difficulties, educational challenges, poor academic performance and low engagement with school life, including pupils from migrant backgrounds.

The Compiti@casa partnership is led by the Parsec social cooperative (Rome) in collaboration with the Raggio Verde social cooperative (Novara), Traparentesi APS (Naples) and the I Tetti Colorati association (Ragusa). The educational tutors have been selected from among the students of the four major partner universities: the University of Turin, the University of Messina, the University of Naples Federico II and Sapienza University of Rome, which work in synergy with the 20 schools in the areas involved. The project also includes a socio-educational support service operating within the schools to facilitate relations between families, schools and local services, with the aim of strengthening the community’s educational partnership. The social impact assessment is being carried out by the Bruno Kessler Foundation.

Figures for the 2025–2026 academic year: a growing success Compared with the first year of the programme (which involved 254 tutors, 486 pupils and 19 schools), the second year shows a marked improvement in overall results. In the 2025–2026 academic year, the number of students who dropped out of the programme after just a few lessons fell sharply, from 98 to 33. At the same time, greater consistency is evident: participation rated as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ applied to 352 out of 526 students (compared with 196 the previous year), whilst the number of courses attended with the highest attendance rose from 88 to 177. However, the picture is not uniform: the South faces greater challenges, although even here there has been a marked improvement between the first and second years of the programme.

“The difference between the first and second years lies in the continuity of the project. Schools and families have gained a better understanding of its characteristics and potential,” explains Barbara Guadagni, the project coordinator for Parsec. “The relationship between the school, families and the third sector has also been strengthened: this partnership has proved successful in supporting pupils during times of crisis, in identifying challenges and resources, and in boosting motivation.” Confirming the need for support for families, the social services helpdesk – which operates once a week in every school – has also seen a surge in demand compared to the first year, with as many as 835 people assisted across Campania, Lazio, Piedmont and Sicily, and over 1,500 cases relating to enrolment, school paperwork and access to services. A figure which, according to Barbara Guadagni, “shows how, in addition to educational support, families are weighed down by everyday practical and bureaucratic obstacles”.