Are schools open in the summer? In Puglia it is only a mirage, last Friday the deadline for accessing ministerial funds expired, but those who have managed to present projects foresee initiatives for next autumn or winter. The money is there, the government has allocated 400 million euros for “inclusion, social and skills development activities”.
Beautiful words. Imagine a school with theatre, art and stem workshops; a school open in the summer months, perhaps with the use of gardens, courtyards, equipped gyms. Compared to the previous two years there are 80 million euros more.
The users
We are thinking of paths that could interest, based on the schools’ proposals, between 800 thousand and 1.3 million students and there are 1,714 million additional hours of activity. Not only that, we dream of an alliance between schools and municipalities, universities, voluntary associations and third sector bodies. A book of dreams, at least for the south.
Dates
May 31st was the deadline for submitting projects and applying for funding. Many Apulian institutes have done so, but they will not open in the summer. Nobody will be able to do it.
The reactions
«It is a great opportunity that we have been given – says Claudio Crapis, head teacher of a renowned school in Altamura, the Cagnazzi Classical High School – and it is a possibility that we will use, but we will never succeed in the summer. Consider that today (yesterday, ed.) was the deadline for submitting applications, it will take at least 15 days to examine the projects and then experts and tutors must be found, we must respect the bureaucracy and there are rules with precise deadlines.”
In short, if all goes well, some approved modules will start in September. «At the Cagnazzi high school we presented a project – says Crapis – a theater workshop and a choral singing workshop. If the idea is funded it will be a great opportunity for our students, but it will certainly start in the autumn, perhaps in September.”
Times
The minister’s decree was signed on 12 April, the time required to join and submit applications was very tight, by 31 May the summer plan had to be presented which in any case envisages activities until December 2025. Those who managed to do so in little more than a month to write down a proposal he did it in projection, thinking precisely of the autumn, because it will take time before we get to launch the projects, recruit experts or convince the teachers who want to participate because it is all on a voluntary basis.
Alessandro Sirsi, principal of the Toniolo Comprehensive Institute has been saying it clearly and for some time: «There is an excess of funds for educational institutions, resources often arrive without even the possibility of thinking about it».
Between Pnrr and the southern agenda, schools in Italy have found themselves surrounded by tenders, but they don’t always have staff capable of setting up a financing project, the secretariats are still collapsing at the end of the school year.
Announcing “schools open in summer” for the south is a bluff.
Staff
Added to this is that many classrooms do not have ventilation fans or even outdoor spaces and this leads parents not to think of school as a place for the summer. Without considering that there is often a lack of staff, teachers can decide or not to join voluntary projects) and the ATA staff is not there.
