(Finance) – Despite the huge resources allocated by the PNRR to nursery schools in the age group 0-3 years, “part of the structural weaknesses that characterize the service offer could remain unresolved”. The Parliamentary Budget Office writes it in a Focus dedicated to the Nursery and Kindergarten Plan.
In fact, a substantial number of Municipalities with no or marginal supply did not participate in the tenders envisaged for the allocation of resources. Even if their non-compliance “it will have no repercussions either on the Pnrr’s own target or on the objectives of Barcelona (because they are not evaluated at the level of the individual Municipality)”however, could “prevent these entities from reaching the essential level of social performance (Leps) introduced with the budget law for 2022″.
This level – explains the Upb – provides that in each Municipality or territorial basin a number of places is guaranteed (including the private service) – equivalent in terms of standard cost to the service full-time nursery school – equal to 33 percent of the population between 3 and 36 months. Lastly, the UPB invites you to consider that the reopening of the tenders, which became necessary to allow for greater participation by the bodies, “has led to a delay in the start of the phases subsequent to those of closure of the same. This postponement requires that the award of the works takes place faster than those recently estimated in a joint work by the UPB and Irpet on the duration of the various stages of construction of public works”.
The investment envisaged by Pnrr for kindergartens, kindergartens and early childhood education and care services amount to 4.6 billion, recalls the Upb. Of this figure, they have been put out for tender among the local authorities 3.7 billion, to which were added 109 million allocated by the Ministry of Education. Once the tenders have been completed, the resources assigned to date amount to a total of 3.480 billion. Therefore, 329 million remain to be assigned. The Mezzogiorno received 52.1 percent of the resources. About half of the loans were concentrated in Campania (508.2 million) and Puglia (357.6). Among the central-northern regions, however, the largest funding went to Lombardy (351.4 million), Lazio (214.6) and Veneto (198.2).
Two objectives are associated with the investment of the PNRR: the first (a milestone) provides for the awarding of contracts for the construction, redevelopment and safety improvement of nursery schools and kindergartens by the second quarter of the nursery schools and kindergartens by the second quarter of 2023; The second one (a target) prescribes to create 264,480 new places between nursery schools and kindergartens by the end of 2025.
(Photo: davit85 | 123RF)