The Covid “grillini” wheelchairs sold for 1 euro: a waste of over 200 million euros

The Covid-19 pandemic continues to impact the public debate, and attention has recently focused on the infamous wheeled desks introduced by the former Grillina Education Minister Lucia Azzolina. (In the picture)

These benches, remember with disapproval from many, they have become a symbol of the former minister’s school project, a project that can easily be defined as a failure.

It was December 5, 2020 when the Minister of Education, Lucia Azzolina, with a post on Facebook he announced the almost conclusion of the delivery of the 2.4 million wheelchairs to Italian schools.

During the peak of the pandemic, there was great concern about the risk of contagion in schools. It was thought that the use of single desks could help maintain distance between students, while the addition of wheels should have made moving around the classroom easier.

The result, however, was very different from expectations. In fact, the introduction of wheelchairs has generated chaos in many classes, with students who, bored and stressed by the effects of the pandemic, they used them as game objects, transforming the classrooms into amusement parks.

Schools they never approved the project and Azzolina’s wheelchairs were soon abandoned, taking up precious space and accumulating dust.

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After spending 461 million euros (some say there are “only” 200) the desks that were supposed to solve the problems of Italian schools have disappeared from the schools of almost all regions and put back in stock. One of the main reasons for setting aside anti-Covid desks would be due to the fact that they favor the onset of back pain in boys.

Furthermore, the countertop was 28 by 50 centimeters and was too small to fit one notebook it’s a book.

Recently, wheelchairs have made a comeback in Bagnoli di Sopra, in the province of Padua. The municipality purchased approximately 100 of these benches for a price symbolic of 1 euro each, compared to the 150 euros initially agreed. These desks now find their place in a meeting room on a former military base rather than in a school.

This story reignites the debate over the total government cost of wheelchairs. Matteo Renzi he had spoken of 461 million euros “thrown away” for these desks, but this figure concerns the total budget for emergency school management.

The actual investment for the wheelchairs was 119 million eurosto which must be added another 206 million euros spent on traditional desks.

In comparison, the latter were actually used in classrooms, while the rolling desks remained stacked in a warehouserepresenting a significant, record-breaking waste of resources.

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