“Apply BES indicators to education and research”

Numerous international experts and the Deputy Minister of Education Lorenzo Fioramonti attended the round table organized by the CNEL.

Education and training are one of the main factors in ensuring individual and collective growth, combating poverty and inequality and are a fundamental element for a model of Equitable and Sustainable Well-being (ESW=BES). We need structural interventions to raise the quality of training. Its evaluation is fundamental to measure its effectiveness and impact.

The use of BES indicators as tools for the evaluation of the schools and higher education and research systems is crucial for modifying their functioning and their effects on society and can play an important role in steering towards the goals set by 2030 Agenda.

"Italy in the demographic trap"

During the conference "Italy in the demographic trap", it emerged that the demographic crisis is among the most important structural problems in Italy. For years the country has had a total fertility rate (1.32 children per woman in 2018) among the lowest in Europe. With these assumptions, Italy is moving towards a dramatic decline of the general population (from 60 million today to 56.5 in 2050) and of the active population. In 2050, in fact, a 23% reduction is expected which is equivalent to a loss of 3.5 million in the next 20 years.

Addressing the issue of birth rate means putting in place structural policies and not individual bonuses. We need action on women's employment, investments on social policies and services for children, education and we need to facilitate conciliation policies. In particular, stable work is the first antidote to counter the uncertainties that prevent young people from building their own future. The dramatic trend that comes from the analysis of the Italian birth rate may be slowed in the presence of shared and long-lasting political actions, which focus on fertility as a public investment and not as a private good.