Education in Italy


Education in Italy is compulsory from 6 to 16 years of age, and is divided into five stages: kindergarten, primary school, lower secondary school, upper secondary school and university. Education is free in Italy and free education is available to children of all nationalities who are residents in Italy. Italy has both a private and public education system.
The Programme for International Student Assessment coordinated by the OECD currently ranks the overall knowledge and skills of Italian 15-year-olds as 34th in the world in reading, literacy, and mathematics, significantly below the OECD average of 493. Italian schools face increased challenges such as poor behaviour, poorly built school buildings, and failing curriculum.

History

In Italy a state school system or Education System has existed since 1859, when the Legge Casati mandated educational responsibilities for the forthcoming Italian state.
The Casati Act made primary education compulsory, and had the goal of increasing literacy. This law gave control of primary education to the single towns, of secondary education to the provinces, and the universities were managed by the State.
Even with the Casati Act and compulsory education, in rural areas children often were not sent to school and the illiteracy rate took more than 50 years to halve.
The next important law concerning the Italian education system was the Legge Gentile. This act was issued in 1923, thus when Benito Mussolini and his National Fascist Party were in power. In fact, Giovanni Gentile was appointed the task of creating an education system deemed fit for the fascist system. The compulsory age of education was raised to 14 years, and was somewhat based on a ladder system: after the first five years of primary education, one could choose the 'Scuola media', which would give further access to the "liceo" and other secondary education, or the 'avviamento al lavoro', which was intended to give a quick entry into the low strates of the workforce.
The reform enhanced the role of the Liceo Classico, created by the Casati Act in 1859, and created the Technical, Commercial and Industrial institutes and the Liceo Scientifico.
The Liceo Classico was the only secondary school that gave access to all types of higher education until 1968.
The influence of Gentile's Idealism was great, and he considered the Catholic religion to be the "foundation and crowning" of education.
In 1962 the 'avviamento al lavoro' was abolished, and all children up to 14 years had to follow a single program, encompassing primary education and middle school.
From 1962 to the present day, the main structure of Italian primary education remained largely unchanged, even if some modifications were made: a narrowing of the gap between males and females, a change in the structure of secondary school and the creation of new licei, 'istituti tecnici' and 'istituti professionali', giving the student more choices in their paths.
In 1999, in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the Bologna Process, the Italian university system switched from the old system, to the new system. The nuovo ordinamento split the former Laurea into two tracks: the Laurea triennale, followed by the 2-year Laurea specialistica, the latter renamed Laurea Magistrale in 2007. A credit system was established to quantify the amount of work needed by each course and exam, as well as enhance the possibility to change course of studies and facilitate the transfer of credits for further studies or go on exchange in another country. However, it is now established that there is just a five-year degree "Laurea Magistrale a Ciclo Unico" for programmes such as Law and a six-year degree for Medicine.
In 2019, Education minister Lorenzo Fioramonti announced that next year Italy will be the first country in the world where the study of climate change and sustainable development will be mandatory for students.

Primary education

Scuola primaria, also known as scuola elementare, is commonly preceded by three years of non-compulsory nursery school. Scuola elementare lasts five years. Until middle school, the educational curriculum is the same for all pupils: although one can attend a private or state-funded school, the subjects studied are the same. The students are given a basic education in Italian, English, mathematics, natural sciences, history, geography, social studies, and physical education. Some schools also have Spanish or French, musical arts and visual arts.
Until 2004, pupils had to pass an exam to access Scuola secondaria di primo grado, comprising the composition of a short essay in Italian, a written math test, and an oral test on the other subjects. The exam has been discontinued and pupils can now enter Scuola secondaria di Primo Grado directly.
Usually students start Primary School at the age of 6, but students who are born between January and March and are still 5 years old can access primary school early; this is called Primina. For example, a student born in February 2002 can attend primary school with students born in 2001.

Secondary education

Secondary education in Italy lasts 8 years and is divided in two stages: Scuola secondaria di primo grado, also broadly known as Scuola media, which corresponds to the Middle School grades, and Scuola secondaria di secondo grado, also broadly known as Scuola superiore, which corresponds to the high-school level.
The Scuola secondaria di primo grado lasts three years.
The Scuola secondaria di secondo grado lasts five years. Every tier involves an exam at the end of the final year, called esame di maturità, required to gain a degree and have access to further university education.
While students in lower secondary school stay in their classroom for most of the time, in high school they will be the one to move from the classroom to the laboratory, but the teacher still has to move from one classroom to another if the lesson is not held in a laboratory.
In the lower middle school pupils start school at 8:00 am and finish at 1:00 pm, while for high school, depending on the school, they attend school 5 to 8 hours a day based on the day of the week and the exact choice of school.
Most schools have 10 minutes of recess, although high school students have 15 to 30 minutes depending on how long the day is.
For historical reasons, there are three types of Scuola secondaria di secondo grado, subsequently divided into further specialization. Currently all of the secondary schools in Italy have most of the structure and subjects in common for the first two years, in the last three years most subjects are peculiar to a particular type of course but subjects like Italian, English and mathematics are still taught.:
Any type of secondary school that lasts 5 years grants access to the final exam, called esame di maturità or esame di stato; this exam takes place every year between June and July and grants access to university.
In 2013, The Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the OECD, ranks the Italian secondary education as the 21st in the world, above the United States and in the OECD average, and observes a wide gap between results in Northern Italian schools, which performed significantly better than the national average, and Southern Italian schools, that had much poorer results. Moreover, students in state-owned schools perform better than students in private schools. An Italian student is 19 when they enter university, while in other countries 18 is the more common age.

Higher education

Italy has a large and international network of public and state affiliated universities and schools offering degrees in higher education. State-run universities of Italy constitute the main percentage of tertiary education in Italy, and are managed under the supervision of Italian's Ministry of Education.
Italian universities are among the oldest universities in the world. In particular the University of Bologna, University of Padua, founded in 1222, and the University of Naples Federico II are the oldest universities in Europe. Most universities in Italy are state-supported.
There are also a number of Superior Graduate Schools or Scuola Superiore Universitaria, offer officially recognized titles, including the Diploma di Perfezionamento equivalent to a Doctorate, Dottorato di Ricerca i.e. Research Doctorate or Doctor Philosophiae i.e. PhD. Some of them also organize courses Master's degree. There are three Superior Graduate Schools with "university status", three institutes with the status of Doctoral Colleges, which function at graduate and post-graduate level. Nine further schools are direct offshoots of the universities. The first one is the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, taking the model of organization from the famous École Normale Supérieure. These institutions are commonly referred to as "Schools of Excellence".
Italy hosts a broad variety of universities, colleges and academies. Founded in 1088, the University of Bologna is likely the oldest in the world. In 2009, the University of Bologna is, according to The Times, the only Italian college in the top 200 World Universities. Milan's Bocconi University has been ranked among the top 20 best business schools in the world by The Wall Street Journal international rankings, especially thanks to its M.B.A. program, which in 2007 placed it no. 17 in the world in terms of graduate recruitment preference by major multinational companies. Bocconi was also ranked by Forbes as the best worldwide in the specific category Value for Money. In May 2008, Bocconi overtook several traditionally top global business schools in the Financial Times Executive education ranking, reaching no. 5 in Europe and no. 15 in the world.
Other top universities and polytechnics include the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, the LUISS in Rome, the Polytechnic University of Turin, the Politecnico di Milano, the University of Rome La Sapienza and the University of Milan. The University is the only Italian member of the League of European Research Universities, a prestigious group of twenty research-intensive European Universities. It has also been awarded ranking positions such as 1st in Italy and 7th in Europe.
According to National Science Indicators, a database produced by Research Services Group containing listings of output and citation statistics for more than 90 countries, Italy has an above-average output of scientific papers in space science, mathematics, computer science, neurosciences, and physics; the lowest, but still slightly above world-average, output in terms of number of papers produced is recorded in the social sciences, psychology and psychiatry, and economics and business.

Summary

Compulsory education is highlighted in yellow.