More nurseries, more infant schools, more reception for children between the ages of zero and six… Europe has been asking for all this for years, since at least 2002, when the European Council in Barcelona set all Member States a target "by 2010 of providing childcare to at least 90% of children between three and the compulsory schooling age", along with "at least 33% of children below the age of three."
Italy hit the first of these targets quite quickly: by 2015, 96% of children in the four-to-six age group went to infant school. The nation still has much to do to achieve the second objective. Fewer than a quarter of Italian infants between the ages of zero and two have a place in public facilities for infants. In Valle d'Aosta, four out of ten babies go to nursery. In the Campania region, the number is just 6 out of 100.
And yet there has been no end of costly interventions to increase provision for zero-to-three year-olds: since 2007, the Italian state has spent some €1.15 billion, and now the "Buona Scuola" Reform is adding over €200 million per year, starting from 2017, to roll out an integrated system for educating and teaching zero-to-six year-olds. What's the outlook?