Italy’s schools are literally crumbling. In the past year alone, 71 structural collapses were recorded, leaving 19 injured—including nine students. This is the highest figure since Cittadinanzattiva began monitoring school safety. Meanwhile, student injuries reported to Inail have surpassed 78,000, a sharp increase from last year.
The incidents mostly involved ceilings, roofs, plaster, windows, and even perimeter walls and trees in schoolyards. Campania, Lazio, and Lombardy were the hardest hit. The causes are systemic: aging buildings, lack of maintenance, slow implementation of repairs, and insufficient investment in safety inspections.
Half of Italy’s schools were built in 1965, before seismic regulations were introduced in 1976. Today, nearly half of all school buildings still fail to meet seismic safety standards. Only 4% of facilities have been upgraded and less than 40% have valid safety certifications. To make matters worse, more than 2,200 schools still contain asbestos, potentially exposing 350,000 students daily.
The PNRR recovery plan has funded over 1,500 interventions, but progress remains limited compared to the country’s needs. Alarmingly, student fatalities rose to 13 in 2024, underscoring the urgency of long-overdue safety reforms.