Green light from the Chamber

The Pnrr school decree is law. Recruitment, stop to diploma mills and rents for off-campus students: here are the novelties

News is also coming on teacher recruitment, textbooks and technical education.

by Rome Editorial Staff

3 June 2025

3' min read

Key points

150 million for hiring researchers in enterprises
More resources to the Housing Fund
Counteracting diploma mills
Technical school reform
Change recruitment
Funds for kindergartens
More resources for textbooks
teacher card
Fighting youth distress
Push to Its Academy
School Building Interventions

3' min read

Final go-ahead for the Chamber of Deputies' bill converting the Pnrr decree into law with 155 votes in favour, 78 votes against and 4 abstentions. The measure, on which the government had secured a vote of confidence in the middle of the day, was approved on second reading without changes to the text approved by the Senate and thus became law. The decree would have expired on 6 June.

The text had already been approved by the Senate. There are many new features in the text: a tax credit to encourage companies to hire researchers and PhDs. A 9.5 million increase in the rent fund for out-of-town students, with special attention to the most deserving and the differently abled. New contractual opportunities for researchers. Guaranteed continuation of the current competition procedures for ordinary and associate professors pending the final go-ahead of the university teacher recruitment reform, already approved by the Council of Ministers.

150 million for hiring researchers in enterprises

Incentives for the stable hiring of researchers and PhDs are strengthened through an increased tax credit of EUR 10,000 extended to all companies and without numerical hiring limits per company. The measure is financed by a EUR 150 million fund of the NRP. The aim is to create up to 15,000 permanent jobs in the private sector and to encourage innovation in companies and businesses.

More resources for the Housing Fund

The endowment of the Rental Fund for off-site students is increased by EUR 9.5 million. The resources are intended to support students with an ISEE under 20,000 euro and who do not benefit from other public housing subsidies. The access criteria have also changed in order to enhance merit and avoid the inefficiencies recorded in past years: to access the benefit, the student must not have accumulated more than one year's off-campus status.

Fight against diploma mills

The school chapter. The measure, spearheaded by Minister Giuseppe Valditara, provides for measures to counter the phenomenon of diploma mills. More specifically, stricter limits are introduced for the activation of collateral terminal classes. It is forbidden to take two different examinations in the same year, even in different types of institutes, and all state and private schools are obliged to adopt the electronic report card, online register and computerised protocol.

Technical school reform

It also regulates the completion of the reform of technical institutes, with the introduction of a new organisational structure that is sensitive to the country's economic and social transformations: the intervention consolidates the link between school and territory, promotes innovation and internationalisation, and strengthens continuity with technological tertiary education courses.

Change recruitment

In addition, the revision of the teacher recruitment system is completed, with the extension of the lists to eligible candidates, the introduction of new regional lists for the benefit of eligible candidates, the acceleration of tenure appointments, and the valorisation of categories that have been excluded until now, such as the eligible candidates of the 'Extraordinary 2020' competition and those of the Motor Education competition.

Funds for kindergartens

EUR 820 million are allocated for the implementation of the Day Nurseries Plan, which has already been launched by the ministry, intended for municipalities with service coverage levels below the national average of 33% in the 0-2 age group, to ensure greater territorial equity and support work-life balance.

More resources for textbooks

It also provides for an increase in resources for the free or semi-free supply of textbooks for students in financial difficulty and extends the use of municipal rankings for substitute teaching in nursery schools.

teacher card

Already for this school year, the teacher's charter is also granted to substitute teachers on vacant and available positions.

Fighting youth distress

The decree also intervenes on the addiction and youth distress front, with the allocation of one million euros to the Ministry of Education and Merit, to be used for teacher training, and authorises the holding of the competition for 101 officials of the Regional School Offices on a regional basis.

Drive to Its Academy

Particular attention is paid to the Its Academy, for which both the tax treatment of scholarships, which will from now on be exempt from taxation with a consequent increase in per capita value for students, and the recognition of qualifications and training courses undertaken abroad are brought into line with the university level.

School Building Interventions

During its conversion, the text was also enriched with measures, resulting from discussions with the Anci, aimed at favouring the implementation of school building interventions, through the use of bidding discounts and the simplification of various procedures, including those concerning variants, as well as facilitating DNSH interventions and increasing the fund by 20 million over two years for extraordinary needs, again concerning school buildings.