Structural delays, insufficient maintenance and strong territorial gaps that penalize above all the South and the islands. The public school in Italy does water everywhere, especially if you think that in 2024 only 47% of buildings had a certificate of usability, only 31.2% benefited from diagnostic investigations on the floors in the last 5 years and just 10.9% has received safety interventions on the floors.
This is what emerges from the new Report of Ecosystem of Legambiente School with the data relating to 2024 and a focus on the last 25 years of school in the country and from which a more than bitter figure comes out: if the right to study should also pass from welcoming and protected spaces, the reality tells a two -speed Italy, with students forced to less than fragile and little efficient buildings.
Insecure schools and hiccup maintenance
In 2024 less than half of the school buildings has the certificate of accessibility (47%), only 45% have static testing and in many seismic areas over half of the structures has never benefited from a vulnerability verification. The safety of the floors, the main cause of accidents at school, remains an emergency: only 31% of buildings have had diagnostic investigations in the last five years and just 11% has been made safe.
The expenditure for extraordinary maintenance, instead of growing, is down: 39,648 euros per building in 2024, against 43,563 of the average of the last five years. And it is not better for ordinary maintenance, with just 8,338 euros average spent for building, too few to guarantee constant interventions and prevention.
Sustainability and services still distant
On the environmental front, progress remain shy. Only 16% of the buildings had energy efficiency and just 6.5% return to class A. Two thirds of Italian schools are still in the last three energy classes.
The renewables are present only in 21% of the buildings, with strong imbalances: in the North you travel faster, while in the islands you stop at a miserable 10%.
It is not better for fundamental services: full time is guaranteed only 38% of the classes, with a collapse at 16.8% in the islands. The canteens cover 73.7% of schools, but take 38.8% always in the insular regions. The gyms, present in the middle of the institutes, are often not accessible in extracurricular hours, especially in the South.
25 years of slow and discontinuous progress
The report also analyzed a quarter of a century of school construction. The result is discouraging: from 2009 to 2024 the funds for ordinary maintenance ranged between 5,000 and 13,000 euros per building, a figure too low compared to real needs. The extraordinary maintenance, although present, has been fluctuating and strongly linked to emergencies or temporary availability of resources.
There is a net backwardness of the school bus service (from 38% of the early 2000s to just over 20% today) and a growth of renewable energy still too slow: if the current rhythm will not change, it will serve over 70 years because all Italian schools are equipped with clean systems.
The asbestos risk, which seemed falling down, today concerns about 10% of the buildings again, also thanks to a better monitoring and greater transparency of the municipalities.
Legambiente’s requests: a national plan for school
The association launches eight proposals to the government, including:
The photograph of School ecosystem It shows a system that cannot consolidate progress, leaving a gap open between what has been done and what remains to be done. But there are also positive signs: good practices already active in different cities, with schools that have invested in sustainability, regeneration of the educating spaces and communities.
The challenge is to transform these experiences into a national model. Because school is not just a building: it is a civic garrison, a place of growth and future. And guaranteeing safe, healthy and sustainable spaces is not a luxury, but a right for every child and baby.
