Italy Education: Education Structure
Introduction
School education is compulsory in Italy between the ages of 6 and 15 years. Istruzione parentale (homeschooling) is legal, but not common. All children must register at the school, where they will take their final exams, and parents are required to justify their decision to teach their children at home at the beginning of each school year.
Girls and boys are educated together and school uniforms are not required. Student uniforms in Italy are associated with the era of Benito Mussolini, where children were placed into Italian Fascist youth movements and had to wear uniforms in and outside of school time. As such, uniforms remain unpopular despite recent debates in parliament to reintroduce some form of uniform requirement.
In all public schools in Italy, the medium of instruction is Italian.
Formal structure of the school system
Primary
Type of school providing this education: Scuola elementare
Length of program: 5 years
Age: 6 to 11 years
Certificate/diploma awarded: Diploma di Licenza della Scuola Elementare
Lower Secondary
Type of school providing this education: Scuola media inferiore
Length of program: 3 years
Age: 11 to 14 years
Certificate/diploma awarded: Diploma di Licenza della Scuola Media Inferiore
Technical Secondary
Type of school providing this education: Istituto tecnico
Length of program: 5 years
Age: 14 to 19 years
Certificate/diploma awarded: Diploma di Esame di Stato conclusivo del Corso di/per (name of technical option in the Istituto Tecnico concerned)
Upper Secondary
Type of school providing this education: Liceo classico, Liceo scientifico, Liceo linguistico
Length of program: 5 years
Age: 14 to 19 years
Certificate/diploma awarded: Diploma di Esame di Stato conclusivo del Corso di Liceo Classico/Liceo Scientifico
Specialized Secondary
Type of school providing this education: Liceo artistico, Istituto d'arte
Length of program: 5 years
Age: 14 to 19 years
Certificate/diploma awarded: Diploma di Esame di Stato conclusivo del Corso di/per...(name of the option within the istituto secondario concerned)
Specialized Secondary
Type of school providing this education: Istituto magistrale, Istituto secondario superiore per i servizi socioeducativi
Length of program: 5 years
Age: 14 to 19 years
Certificate/diploma awarded: Diploma magistrale ad indirizzo "scienze sociali" or "sociopsicopedagogico" / Diploma di Esame di Stato conclusivo del Corso di/per… ...(name of the option within the istituto secondario concerned)
Vocational Secondary
Type of school providing this education: Istituto professionale
Length of program: 3 years
Age: 14 to 17 years
Certificate/diploma awarded: Diploma di Qualifica di/per… (name of the option within the Istituto Professionale concerned)
Professional
Type of school providing this education: Istituto professionale
Length of program: 5 years
Age: 14 to 19 years
Certificate/diploma awarded: Diploma di Esame di Stato conclusivo dei Corsi di Istruzione Professionale di/per...(name of the option within the Istituto Professionale concerned)
Primary schooling in Italy may be preceded by up to three years of non-compulsory preschool education. Primary school lasts for five years and leads to the Diploma di Licenza della Scuola Elementare.
Secondary education covers eight years, divided into three years lower secondary, followed by five years of upper secondary education. The scuola media (lower secondary school), often referred to as middle school, lasts three years and concludes with a written examination at the end of the third year. Success in this exam leads to the Diploma di Licenza della Scuola Media Inferiore, which for students not progressing into higher education will form their school leaving certificate.
The final five years of Italian secondary schooling is extremely varied, as there are several types of schools differentiated by subjects and activities. The main division is between the liceo, the istituto tecnico, and the istituto professionale. Of the three school types, the liceo is the most academic with almost all students progressing into higher education. All students completing the full five years of further secondary school can sit the final state high school exam, called Esame di Stato conclusivo del Corso di studio di Istruzione Secondaria Superiore or Esame di Maturità. This exam takes place every year in June and July and grants those who pass access to any faculty at any university.
Vocational secondary education is provided by the istituto professionale, liceo artistico, and istituto di arte. All these programs lead to different types of profession-specific siplomas (Maturità Classica, Scientifica, Linguistica, Artistica, Magistrale, Tecnica, etc). A diploma in a vocational subject may also be accepted for university admission, depending on the institute applied to.
School Timetable
Term dates: (One) Start of September to Christmas, (Two) Start of January to Easter, (Three) End of Easter to mid-June
School days: Monday to Friday (also Saturdays in some vocational schools)
School hours: 08:30 to 14:00
Cost of Schooling
All public primary and secondary schools are state supported and do not charge fees. Around 10 percent of Italian children attend private schools, which may be partially state funded, but all charge tuition fees at some level. For a state-subsidized private school, there would be a one-time enrollment fee of around €300 (€ = euro), followed by monthly payments of €175. Non-subsidized private schools may charge double this amount.
Parents pay for some books and some study materials, which may be provided at the schools. There is, however, an overall disparity of school resources between the north and south of the country. Classroom materials and funds to maintain the school buildings and equipment are more limited in the south of the country. Educational funding is equitably distributed from central government throughout the country, but in the existing system, the funds are received and managed by municipal leaders. The south of Italy has greater regional development needs, and where there are broad needs in impoverished regions, the local municipality has the authority to redirect education funds to other areas. This has resulted in some schools in the south being much more under-resourced compared to those in the more urbanized north of the country.
Special Schools
Italy has had an inclusive education policy since the 1970s, meaning disabled and special needs children are educated in mainstream schools. Additional support is provided to mainstream schools in the form of special needs teachers and reduced class sizes. Roughly 100,000 students who are registered with a disability in Italy are accommodated in regular schooling as a result of provision of special teachers and extra classroom resources.
There are still a few special schools left in Italy, often run by religious orders, in response to parents who specifically request this type of education for their disabled children. This decision by parents is carefully scrutinized by the school districts, because the national policy is to phase out special schools. There are still some residential institutes for children with severe conditions that cannot be accommodated in mainstream schools, such as severe cerebral palsy.
Curriculum
The Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research mandates a national curriculum. At primary school, initially the emphasis is on children learning to read and write before they commence studies in mathematics, geography, Italian, English, science, music, computer studies, and social studies. Religious education is optional. The lower secondary school curriculum is the same, but develops each subject area in greater detail.
For the first two years of upper secondary school, all students use the same state-mandated curriculum of Italian language and literature, science, mathematics, foreign language, religion, geography, history, social studies, and physical education. Indirizzi (specialized courses) begin in the third year of upper secondary school, where students take options depending on their proposed future study or career paths.
Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca (Ministry of Education, Universities and Research)
Istruzione
Viale Trastevere, 76/a
00153 Roma
Italy
Tel: [39] 6 58491
Web: www.istruzione.it
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