(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 29 - In the last ten years - according to research by Tuttoscuola, elaborated on official data published on the website of the Ministry of Education and Merit - in Italy the doors of over 2,600 schools have been barred, only in the segment of kindergartens and primary schools (pupils between 3 and 11 years). And in the next five years it can be estimated that at least another 1,200 will close, between state and equal. Moreover - according to the estimates of the Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara himself - in ten years from the 7.4 million students of 2021 it will fall to just over six million, at the rate of 110-120,000 fewer children every year.
The haemorrhage of enrollments - according to the study - has never stopped in the last ten years and has hit above all in the South: of the 2,600 schools closed between the 2014-15 school year and the current 2022-23, two out of three (over 1,700) were in the South. 15% of schools closed were in the north-west (-382), 10% in the north-east (-245) and 11% in the centre (-289schools).
It is above all the small towns, especially in mountain areas, that have paid the highest price, losing what is the first center of aggregation of the local community, a garrison of culture and educational relations.
More than half (55%) of the schools that closed were paritarie, mostly private kindergartens.
To retreat therefore is not only the private school, which must also deal with the economic crisis that makes it more difficult to pay fees and diverts enrollment to the state school, but also the latter: in the last ten years - calculates the report - the State has closed as many as 1,176 schools (450 kindergarten and 726 primary), in all regions (but almost 70% in the South and in the Islands).
According to the study, the extinction of schools in recent years has occurred mainly in the kindergarten segment, which accounts for two-thirds of the 2,600 schools closed, while 865 primary schools have closed. This figure suggests that in the coming years the long wave will also affect many middle and high schools.
Overall, within the next five years, if there are no regulatory containment measures, another 1,200 schools could close among equal state schools, based on Tuttoscuola's projections that also take into account the trend of births. (ANSA).
School: 2600 schools closed in 10 years, 1200 in the next five
2023-05-29T14:01:09.590Z
Highlights: In the last ten years in Italy the doors of over 2,600 schools have been barred. In the next five years it can be estimated that at least another 1,200 will close, between state and equal. In ten years from the 7.4 million students of 2021 it will fall to just over six million, at the rate of 110-120,000 fewer children every year. More than half (55%) of the schools that closed were paritarie, mostly private kindergartens.
In the last ten years - according to research by Tuttoscuola, elaborated on official data published on the website of the Ministry of Education and Merit - in Italy the doors of over 2 have been barred. (ANSA)