A real boom in applications to access one of the most important services in the city, which concerns women in particular and their compatibility between family and work needs. There are 205 families left, for now, without a place in the municipal nursery in view of September. The Municipality of Bergamo found itself faced with numerous requests, 489, from families residing in the city compared to 431 last year (when the waiting list stopped at 175).
Given the current overall capacity of the municipal structures of 541 places, and the large presence of boys and girls who will continue to attend next year, 257, the municipal administration is currently able to guarantee the acceptance of 284 applications. The other 205 remain in the queue.
“The need to improve services in this area – underlines the new mayor Elena Carnevali – concerns mothers first and foremost, but also the well-being of family life as a whole, as well as the social and economic growth of our community, linked precisely to importance of women’s contribution to the world of work”. Carnevali says she is worried “about the cuts in funding to Municipalities, which penalize, in particular, the most virtuous in the acquisition of Pnrr funds”.
Contributing to the lengthening of the waiting list this year are the demolition, reconstruction and expansion works, thanks precisely to Pnrr funds, of five municipal nursery schools (which will bring a total of 140 places to capacity), in which Palazzo Frizzoni was unable to foresee new settlements of children. A first response to the pressing demand for places in municipal nursery schools will come with the 140 new places generated by the maxi operation of the new nursery schools financed by the Pnrr with 8,719,000 euros, to which is added 1 million euros of municipal resources. In September, if the construction site proceeds as planned, the first of these nurseries will open, in the city’s Villaggio degli Sposi district, with 55 places in total available (during the construction site the children already enrolled had been moved to other municipal nursery schools). However, the Municipality also reads the significant increase in applications as “an appreciation for educational services in the 0-3 year age group”.
Michele Andreucci
