Education Calls for Changes to Some Milestones in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR)

Office calculations do not always align with those on the ground. The Ministry of Education has announced that it has proposed modifications to certain targets and milestones in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) to better reflect the actual needs on the ground and the rising prices. They mention that these proposals include adjustments to deadlines in line with the measures in the new education laws. Specifically, there will be reductions in targets for establishing computer labs, supplementary early education services reduced from 412 to a minimum of 90, and changes to the number of student transportation vehicles, as it was estimated as 8+1 seat vehicles, while local administrative units requested 16+1 seat minibusses.

According to the Ministry of Education, "Regarding the modifications proposed by the Ministry of Education through the Ministry of Investments and European Projects in its capacity as national coordinator for adjusting certain targets and milestones in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), Component 15 - Education, we make the following clarifications: in the renegotiation of targets/milestones in the PNRR with the European Commission, the Ministry of Education proposed changes based on real territorial needs, based on recent needs analyses, which at the time of submitting the National Recovery and Resilience Plan were only estimated based on data in the SIIIRK system."

The Ministry of Education mentions that the proposed adjustments include corrections for material errors such as translation errors from English or legislative coherence adjustments. It also includes adjustments to deadlines in line with the new education laws, such as governance reform following the entry into force of the provisions of the Pre-University Education Law, as well as the development of an online assessment platform for student competencies in line with the new agreed-upon deadlines. Furthermore, the Ministry states that some of the proposed changes are objective in nature, such as "adjusting indicators in line with the application of the price increase index and in line with the actual territorial needs."

Regarding the number of computer labs, after the call for projects, it was found that the local need was lower than the Ministry's initial estimate, mainly due to the multiple funding sources schools received during the pandemic to meet their IT equipment needs. As a result, the Ministry has requested adjustments to the milestones, reducing the estimated labs from the initial 5,200 to a minimum of 4,350.

Another proposal from the Ministry was "reducing the target for establishing supplementary early education services from 412 to a minimum of 90." The new target corresponds to the projects submitted (99) following several meetings with potential beneficiaries and multiple extensions of the submission deadline. Between 2020 and 2021, the target was estimated at 412 supplementary services dedicated exclusively to isolated/disadvantaged localities.

The Ministry of Education also proposed adjustments due to price increases between the drafting of the PNRR and the launch of project calls, as well as deadline extensions for objective reasons, such as obtaining approvals for infrastructure projects or the limited availability of electric school minibusses.

Regarding the acquisition of green school minibusses, the Ministry conducted an analysis to identify the localities in need of school minibusses and found that local authorities were requesting larger minibusses, often with more than 16+1 seats, to meet specific community needs. Therefore, the costs of transportation vehicles were at least double the initial estimate. The Ministry has proposed updating the targets to reflect the number of beneficiaries (the same students but grouped in larger minibusses). Additionally, the Ministry mentioned that they have tried to identify additional funding sources to meet the territorial needs, increasing the initial budget of 200 million euros dedicated to this target by an additional 50 million euros, plus the co-financing from county councils worth over 7 million euros.

Finally, the Ministry of Education mentioned that one milestone in the PNRR, the grant for digitizing the National Council of Rectors (CNR), needs to be reconsidered as CNR does not have the status of a public utility and cannot be a beneficiary of this type of funding.