Fiorenza Sarzanini (photo by Carlo Furgeri Gilbert).
Un collapse every three days from the beginning of the school year. But also overcrowded classrooms, non-standard structures, old systems.
The survey that every year Active citizenship plays in schools throughout Italy once again delivers a dramatic picture with respect to the safety of the places where children and young people spend a good part of their day.
Now the PNRR funds have arrived, we must use them to the fullest. But while waiting for contracts and works that certainly will not have a short time, the dangers are all too evident.
And what happened two weeks ago in the main hall of the Faculty of Languages of the University of Cagliari – where two hours after the end of the lessons the whole ceiling came down – is the practical demonstration of this. It could have been a massacre and it was this umpteenth bell that made the alarm sound.
The numbers collected in the annual report make the situation well understood: “More than half of the buildings lack static viability and fire prevention certifications. Between September 2021 and August 2022 there were 45 collapses, about one episode every four school days, to which are added the 11 that occurred between September and today. 42 percent of our schools, or 16,794, were built before 1976, for about a further quarter the date of construction is not known. The regions with the highest percentage of schools with certification in good standing are Valle d’Aosta (51.74 percent), Emilia Romagna (49.50 percent), Umbria (47.80 percent ), Molise (47.05 percent). Among the regions with the lowest percentages: Lazio (12.21 per cent), Calabria (18.75 per cent), Sardinia (22.81 per cent) ».
It’s not over: “As many as 20 percent of institutions do not have an emergency planonly 50 per cent carried out evacuation tests which instead would be mandatory at least twice a year ».
Covid has shown how inadequate the classrooms are, with non-existent ventilation systems, too narrow rooms, sometimes crumbling canteens.
The measures must be urgent and suitable to definitively solve the problems. Wasting the opportunity to deliver modern schools with the right technology to children would be too serious a damage and therefore unacceptable.
Is there a difference in performance if you study (and work) in well-kept and beautiful spaces or not? Write to us [email protected]
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