The culture ministry in
collaboration with the education ministry will allocate six
million euros at the start of the next school year in support of
projects to develop the artistic creativity of students in
primary and secondary schools.
Of the overall total, 2.4 million euros will go towards
schools in urban outskirts where the risk of dropping out is
higher.
The project aims to reinforce work that began in 2016 with
the stability law as well as commit more resources to promote
culture and innovative works among young people up to 35 years
old in sectors including visual and multimedia arts, cinema,
dance, literature, music, and theatre.
The initiative, titled "For Those Who Create", gets 10% of
its budget from mandatory "private copy" tax contributions made
to the Italian Authors and Publishers Association (SIAE) by
those who sell video and audio recording systems.
In 2018 these contributions, which are managed by SIAE,
totaled approximately 12 million euros.
New in 2019 is that 50% of the funds will be dedicated to
schools, 20% (2.4 million) to those in the outskirts or in
underprivileged areas, and 30% (3.6 million) to other schools.
"Working with young people in the schools is essential for
increasing cultural usage," said Culture Undersecretary Gianluca
Vacca.
"The call for tenders will be issued by SIAE, which will
assign funding by the end of June based on a selection of the
most deserving projects, entrusted to an independent commission
made up of experts in the individual sectors," Vacca said.
The initiative will involve 400 to 500 schools and a total of
about 150,000 students, Vacca said.
Education undersecretary Salvatore Giuliano said the project
is a tool to fight dropout rates.
"The most recent figures aren't encouraging," Giuliano said.
"They range from a high of 37.5% to lows that are
nevertheless still high, at 17%. We're losing students and
resources, and in certain areas of the countries young people
who leave get involved in illegal activities," he said.
Giuliano said the projects will involve students in
extracurricular activities "in new and different ways".
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