Pnrr, the unique opportunity for schools and the third sector
Speech by Alessandra Servidori, professor of labor policies, member of the Steering Council for programmatic activity in the field of economic policy coordination at the presidency of the Council
The alarm, through a detailed open letter, is launched by the educAzioni network in view of the deadline, at the end of February, of the 4 public notices for the construction and safety of nurseries and preschools, for the construction of schools new ones, for the creation of canteens and gyms, to which is added a first tranche of the Plan for the safety and redevelopment of the existing school building stock.
The process involves the publication of the rankings of the approved projects and their geographical location and immediately after the planning of the funded interventions. It is requested that certain indispensable requirements be respected both in the design and construction of the 195 new school buildings planned, but also of all the infant-toddler centers, preschools, 0-6 centers, gyms and canteens that will be redeveloped, put safely, energy-efficient or built from scratch.
The requests of the school and of a substantial part of the Third Sector that work every day with the school and in the school – especially in the most difficult and marginal contexts – concern safety, sustainability, modernity and inclusiveness: safety and environmental sustainability in school building interventions they must go hand in hand in creating modern and highly inclusive learning environments, to allow not only a full inclusion of pupils but also a strong renewal of teaching.
So not only safe schools, but potential energy communities able to provide for their own consumption and, in the long term, also for a part of those in the neighboring area; new buildings with learning environments inspired by a modern pedagogical vision; recovery and rethinking of all the spaces useful for didactic innovation, especially the shared ones, in the schools that will be the subject of safety measures or energy efficiency, that is, most of them; inclusiveness of spaces, to be understood not only as the removal of architectural barriers, but as the dimension of a practice that emphasizes equity in the access and participation of all boys and girls, boys and girls as an essential aspect of one's quality .
And, finally, the furnishings, considered – wrongly – ineligible expenses in the Notices indicated above, and which are fundamental to characterize the learning spaces and accompany the adoption of new teaching methods. There are numerous good practices to follow in this area: from the labeling of spaces with application of Augmentative and Alternative Communication and Braille to sensory paths, from alarms that are not only sound but also light to the creation of immersive spaces for special needs, to the enhancement of outdoor spaces, etc.
Maximum transparency: necessary in the transmission of data on school buildings and clarity in distinguishing new loans from those already in place, as well as precise references to the various expense items for authorized interventions.
The risk is not to be able to read reality correctly and to carry out “old” projects. On the Futura portal – The school for Italy of tomorrow, which should give an account of all the interventions envisaged by the NRP in the education sector, in fact, 30,040 projects already approved and financed are mentioned, of which 19,015 have been completed. The risk is to merge old lines of financing into the NRP, rather than concentrating on new projects that the Plan must give life to.
Furthermore, up to now all the notices reward projects already included in the three-year program or in other programs, as long as they are not subject to previous funding. An undoubted advantage in respecting the deadlines for the Administrations (Municipalities, Provinces and Metropolitan Cities) but probably also an incentive to carry out "old" projects or in any case not particularly innovative from an environmental point of view, the adequacy of the organization of spaces and therefore of a dynamic and inclusive teaching. Therefore, corrective and / or verification elements must be introduced immediately, so that this does not happen, also involving the stakeholders of the local communities.
All the interventions financed with the various items of expenditure (not only Pnrr) must converge in the national register of school buildings; the information regarding the seismic aspects (vulnerability, seismic adaptation / improvement, etc.) and, if present, the data relating to the dimensions of all the spaces, internal and external of each building, so as to have the photograph, once and for all, how many classrooms are missing or inadequate in relation to the number of students, such as common spaces to be reused and where it is not possible to foresee them, the kindergartens that will gradually be recovered, made safe or rebuilt thanks to the funds of the Pnrr, since 0-6 services, although fully part of the education system, are not yet registered by the Registry.
The very stringent implementation timelines envisaged by the Pnrr, the re-proposal of pre-existing projects by local authorities, having ignored the involvement of communities as an essential criterion (with the exception of the Notice relating to new schools), have severely limited the real possibilities participation of schools and educating communities in the process of designing new school spaces and 0-6 services and restructuring of existing ones. Instead, the involvement of the entire school community (school managers, teachers, students, families) to represent needs and provide useful elements for the design or rethinking of spaces is fundamental and in line with the need to put their educational and pedagogical value in the foreground. .
Furthermore, given the growing importance of the relationship between school and territory with the development of educating communities and the spread of community educational pacts, the involvement of the whole territory in the figure of the various collective subjects who work there must be considered an essential element for the construction of a school that is truly new, not only structurally.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/pnrr-occasione-unica-per-scuola-e-terzo-settore/ on Tue, 15 Feb 2022 17:04:28 +0000.