The establishment of merit income for Calabrian university students undoubtedly represents positive news. Making available to the most deserving students, who are up to date with the exams to be taken, a monthly “treasury” of 500 to 1,000 euros is evidently a tool to encourage them to study in the universities of this region and prevent them from leaving this land prematurely. But is the problem really convincing kids to stay another two or three years in a Calabrian university or worrying about what they will find once they say goodbye to university classrooms? Reality shows ruthless numbers. The latest data released by Istat tell of an employment rate between 20 and 64 years old which in Calabria is stuck at 48.5 percent, the youth rate at 18.5, while the rate of non-participation in work of young people between 15 and 29 years old reaches 58.2. In short, will 1,000 euros a month be enough to retain the best brains in these latitudes? Has the impact of the training course on employability been thoroughly assessed? It’s hard to imagine. Yes, because if the measure conceived by governor Roberto Occhiuto was born with noble aims, i.e. to support academic careers, the underlying problem remains the “desert” that exists around the newly launched subsidy.
No bonus will ever be sufficient if structural policies are not implemented towards raising wages and strengthening an entrepreneurial system which on average is unable to absorb highly qualified people because it does not innovate processes and products. All this reinforces the tendency not to valorise skills and not to strengthen people’s potential. And therefore the real challenge is to guarantee equal opportunities for all the children who populate our universities. The young people of this region need (and want) a future with fewer gray areas.