In Campania, Calabria, Liguria, Apulia, Basilicata and Sicily less than 30% of children up to the age of two attend nursery school

One of the consequences of Italy's ageing population and declining birth rate is that the gap between potential users of early childhood nurseries and available places is narrowing, but these child-support solutions, emphasises Istat in the Report Bes (Benessere Equitale e Sostenibile) 2024 published on Thursday 13 November, are not for everyone. In Campania, Calabria, Liguria, Puglia, Basilicata and Sicily, less than 30% of 0-2 year olds attend nursery school.

In the educational year 2022/2023, 14,031 early childhood services were active, with more than 366,000 authorised places (just under half under public ownership). The gap between potential users and available places in nurseries, the statistics agency notes, is gradually narrowing, but significant differences persist from a territorial perspective. The attendance of children between the ages of 0 and 2 years follows the distribution of available facilities across the territory, characterised by large shortages in southern Italy, with the exception of Sardinia. In the three-year period 2022-2024, 35.2 per cent of 0-2 year olds attended childcare services (3.5 percentage points more than in the three-year period 2021-2023). More than half of the regions exceeded the European target of 33% set for 2010; Sardinia and Emilia-Romagna also exceed the target of 45% set for 2030. In Campania, Calabria, Liguria, Apulia, Basilicata and Sicily, less than 30% of 0-2 year olds attend nursery school.

In addition to territorial asymmetries, the differences in access to early childhood services are linked to their strong connotation as a tool for work-life balance. The criterion most frequently used by municipalities to define the nursery school access rankings is the parents' employment status. In fact, children with both parents employed attend the crèche to a much greater extent than children with none or only one parent employed, single parents included (50% vs. 25.8%).

Other conditions, such as the economic disadvantage of the family, are only taken into account for the formation of rankings by a minority of municipalities. 46.4 per cent of children with parents with a university degree, 33.1 per cent of those with parents with a high school diploma and 20 per cent of those with parents with at most a secondary school diploma are enrolled in the nursery school: for the former the figure is more than double that for the latter. The economic disadvantage of families, the non-employment of a parent and foreign citizenship are associated with lower attendance at the crèche. At the age of 4-5, almost all children are in education. In the school year 2023/2024, the share of children of this age who attended pre-school or the first year of primary school rose to 95.0% (it was 92.8% in 2020/2021), with lower values in the Centre (92.5%) and higher values in the South (98%).

If we look at the report on early childhood education services in Italy (year 2023/2024), it turns out that in the educational year 2022/2023, the number of supply units surveyed throughout the country exceeded 14 thousand, with an increase in total places (public and private) of 4.5% compared to the previous educational year. The increase in places achieved in recent years does not, however, succeed in satisfying the demand for early childhood education services, which continues to grow. In fact, almost six out of ten facilities (59.5%) state that they have children on the waiting list, an increase from the 56.3% recorded in the previous year. This trend confirms an upward trend in demand on the part of families, which is not matched by sufficient expansion in supply. The difficulties in satisfying all requests are more pronounced in public sector services: 68.9% state that they have unanswered requests, a figure that rises to 73.3% for public supply units in the North. Waiting lists are also recorded in the private sector, although less frequently: 54% for private services tout court and 53.7% for contracted services.