The chaos Kindergartens: here is where they cost the most, and where you also pay for the canteen.
Uil's alarm: early childhood services are very uneven, the municipalities have increased recourse to outsourced or contracted forms, often with a consequent variability in the quality of the offer. With an Isee of 15,000 euro and one child on average one pays 293 euro per month, with peaks in Prato (449 euro) and Belluno (440 euro),
Key points
- The degree to which administrations cover expenditure varies between neighbouring cities
- The government reduced the coverage target to 15%, far from the European target of 45%
- With Pnrr, national average improves, but not territorial equity
- Uil proposals: full implementation of Lep and transparency on costs
Early childhood services are highly inhomogeneous. Uil has compared the monthly fees charged by the municipalities to families with an Isee of 15,000 euro and one child: the national average is 293 euro, with peaks in Prato (449 euro), Belluno (440 euro), Aosta (425 euro) and Genoa (418 euro); on the opposite side, in Mantua, the service is free, followed by Catanzaro and Lecce (80 euro), Cremona, Viterbo, Rimini and Rieti (100 euro). The canteen service, then, adds a further level of disparity: some municipalities, such as Ancona and Bolzano, include it in the tuition fee (273 and 102 euro respectively); others, instead, require a separate fee, sometimes with significant amounts: these are the cases of Reggio Emilia (135 euro) Campobasso (129 euro), Parma (124 euro) Catanzaro and Como (120 euro).
Over the years, the management difficulties of the municipalities have increased recourse to outsourced or contracted forms, often with a consequent variability in the quality of the offer and in the working conditions of the educational staff. Moreover, the fees charged to families often remain high, especially for single-income households, with the risk of excluding precisely those children who would most need an early educational experience.
The degree of expenditure coverage required by administrations varies between neighbouring cities
Launching the alarm is a study carried out by the Uil social state service, directed by the confederal secretary Santo Biondo, which found that the degree of cost-sharing required by local administrations varies significantly across the country, regardless of the quantity or quality of the services offered. Variations occur between neighbouring cities, with similar socio-economic parameters, without a univocal territorial logic. The North is not necessarily more expensive than the South, nor does the Centre stand out for consistency. In Bari the tuition fee is 158 euro and in Crotone 120 euro, while in Milan it is 251 and in Cuneo 107. In Tuscany it goes from 308 euro in Pisa to 193 euro in Livorno, up to 449 in Prato.
"Early childhood crèches still continue, erroneously, to be classified as public services on individual demand,' and according to Uil, this approach 'gives municipalities wide discretionary powers in setting rates, despite the recognition of crèches as an integral part of the national education system'. A further critical factor concerns the economic sustainability of the service: 'the fees charged to families often remain high, especially for single-income households, with the risk of excluding precisely those children who would most need an early educational experience'.
The government reduced the coverage target to 15%, far from the European target of 45%
The government reduced the target for the coverage of places in regional kindergartens to 15 per cent in the NRP; thus, Italy remains far from the European target of 45 per cent and the national target of 33 per cent. In the NRP, the 2023 revision reduced the target from 264,480 to 150,480 nursery school places, decreasing the share of European funds and shifted a significant part of the funding to national resources, introducing uncertainties about the stability of the financial framework and the eligibility of projects. This led to the postponement of calls for tenders and prolonged procedures for the reallocation of unused resources. According to the Parliamentary Budget Office, even in the most favourable scenario, the planned target will not be reached: about 500 posts will be missed. In the least favourable scenario, the estimated shortfall exceeds 26,000.
