The unusual heat that has hit the country repeatedly over the summer is far from over and, according to an in-depth analysis by the specialized magazine Tuttoscuola, despite the progress made in recent years, 9 out of 10 school buildings would still be without air conditioners. Italy remains one of the European countries where lessons start later, a dynamic that partly helps to mitigate the discomfort caused by extreme temperatures.
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Air conditioning systems
The Tuttoscuola study first shows that in the last four years there has been a clear increase in the number of schools equipped with air conditioners: if in the 2020-2021 period there were 1,593 (3.95% of the 40,342 buildings surveyed), in 2024-2025 they rose to 2,835 (7.20% of the 39,351 recorded so far), for a total increase of over 1,200 units.
The progressive improvement is visible by analyzing the data from the 2021-2022 period, when schools with air conditioning systems had become 2,116 (5.26% of the total) and then reached 2,509 (6.25%) during the following school year. In 2023-24 they finally increased to 2,730, 6.83% of the 39,993 school buildings. The magazine also points out that, although more than nine schools out of ten are still without air conditioners, the latest available data refer to the 2024-2025 school year and that the government, as part of the PNRR, has invested significant resources in this type of system.
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For the preparation of the analysis, Tuttoscuola processed data from the Ministry of Education portal, which however does not explicitly record the presence of systems intended for cooling environments, but only reports buildings equipped with ventilation air conditioners, without specifying whether these are devices usable for both heat and cold. The magazine, for the purposes of the study, considers them also usable for cooling environments.
Distribution at the classroom level
Regarding classrooms, according to the magazine’s estimates, only just over one in 14 would be equipped with air conditioning systems. Assuming their distribution is roughly proportional to that of the buildings – reads the Tuttoscuola study – it is possible to estimate that, out of a total of 365,973 classes considered for 2024-25, about 26,350 are equipped with air conditioning, while 339,623 are not. However, the data obtained is not the result of a direct survey on individual classrooms, but an estimate based on the percentage of buildings.
