The government has decided to postpone by a further two months (from March 31 to May 31, 2023) the timetable of investments for nursery schools and kindergartens envisaged by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. In balance there is one of the strategic objectives of the PNRR: to bring Italy closer to the EU average for child and family services. In the 2017/2018 school year, the places available in nurseries were about 355 thousand, of which 51% were public and 49% private. The coverage rate of the 0-2 year range in Italy is equal to 24.7%, well below what the European Union had recommended to achieve by 2010 (33%). However, the national average hides even more serious regional heterogeneities: Central-North and Sardinia have an average value of around 30%, with areas (Valle d'Aosta, Umbria, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany) that even exceed the European target; in the South and Sicily, however, the average coverage rate drops to just over 10%. The PNRR programme for nursery schools and kindergartens is 4.6 billion euros worth and aims to finance 2,189 interventions: the rankings were published on August 16 last (333 nursery schools and 1,857 kindergartens and centers); another 381 projects were financed for 700 million euros with national resources.
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