Italian education system

The Italian education system is organized centrally by the ministry for the State education for the cycles primary education and secondary and by the ministry for the University of Research for higher education. The schools enjoy a certain organisational autonomy, the teachers are recruited by contest and depend directly on the ministry.

General information

The public school is obligatory until the 15 years age. A bill by envisaging the prolongation was abandoned. The school Vacance S of summer extend roughly from the June 12th to the September 10th and their spreading out is regionalized relatively little. The holidays of Christmas last two weeks, of the December 23rd to the January 7th, those of Easter one week. The elementary schools - especially in the urban areas - offer a schooling to " time plein" 8:00 with 16:00 of the Monday to Friday, and possibly saturdays. The colleges and the colleges, on the other hand, ensure the courses every morning until 13:00 of the Monday to Saturday. Thanks to the policies of school autonomy certain establishments reorganized the timetables in order to release saturdays or a week in February - March by ensuring more course the afternoon.

The official designation of the cycles, adopted in 2004, aims on the one hand at anticipating reform programmed and of other by eliminating from the references considered sexists even nonin conformity with the European directives. Nevertheless, its adoption in the language running results particularly difficult because of heaviness of certain formulation.

Cribs and schools of childhood

The cribs ( asili nido ) deal with the children until the age of 3-4 years and are generally managed by the communes. The schools of the childhood ( scuole dell' infanzia ) - which replaced the nursery school, whose name was considered contrary with the principle of parity between the sexes - accommodate the children from 4 to 6 years. Their frequentation although optional and paying according to the income, is very high.

Primary school education

From one 5 years duration, the scuola primaria (in the past scuola elementare ) aims at making known to the children bases. The training of one second language, generally English, begin as from the third year. The organization generally envisages three teachers per class, teaching each of two with all the matters (often by field: arts person or scientist). The teaching of the Catholic religion is optional under the terms of the Legal settlement. The weekly duration is of approximately thirty hours, unless the establishment does not envisage courses the afternoon, in which case saturdays are free.

A small examination ( licenza elementare ) occurs at the end of the fifth year, traditionally and for the form, not having more one real utility today.

Secondary education of the first cycle: “scuola media”

The scuola secondaria di firstly grado , heiress of the scuola media inferiore , comprises that three years. Introduced in 1963, this type of school answered the will to guarantee the equal opportunity between schoolboys resulting from different social layers. Indeed, the schooling is conceived in order to give a universal base of knowledge to reach directly the Job market as well as with general, technical and vocational trainings. Although the final examination, the licenza media (the patent), remains essential for the admission with the colleges and any economic activity, the rise of compulsory education at 18 years imposes a reconsideration of the objectives of the college. From now on, the majority of the establishments widened the teaching offer good beyond the obligatory matters. However, very often the colleges are not able to propose a coherent continuation with acquired competences, in particular in the case of Latin and second living language which generally comprises a complete restarting. One counts nearly 10.030 colleges of secondary education accommodating 2,5 million pupils.

The licenza media

The examination of licenza media consists of three written tests and an oral test. Competences are evaluated by a composite commission by professors internal and chaired by an external police chief.

Written tests

Test of Italian: drafting of a composition relating to the topicality, the literature or of the personal experiences (4h).
Test of mathematics: series of questions of geometry, algebra and arithmetic.
Test of living language: questions of grammar and textual comprehension, summary or drafting.

Oral test

multi-field Maintenance: the student is questioned by a jury on the whole of the studied disciplines and more precisely on personally prepared research tasks. The form of maintenance must make it possible to check the capacities of interdisciplinary reasoning like in the matters not approached in the written examinations.

Evaluation

While being based on the results in the whole of the tests, in the event of success the jury sanctions the level of the student by one of the following mentions ottimo (very well), distinto (well), buono (rather well) or sufficiente (passable). In the event of failure, the student must redouble the third year beyond scuola media . Concerning the university each student receives an evaluation which goes from zero to ten. Not to be readjusted the high-school pupils must have at least six in all the matters, dependant on its way of studies. When a pupil does not succeed, it must recover the work which one considered to be insufficient the following year the bad mark. For that it is constant during the afternoon at the school by its characteristic teaching or another of the same matter where it feels in difficulty so that it fills its " dette" (in Italy one calls that " debito formativo"). It is to better explain why these courses are not individualized and have only the objective to help those which need some really.

Secondary education of the second cycle

The term liceo (college) applies only to the general dies (traditional, scientific, linguistic, artistic). In the public system, each establishment is generally specialized in only one die.

General education

Liceo classico

traditional College: Very centered on the traditional letters (Latin, Greek old), this die is regarded as the best intellectual preparation to still today convey higher learning. The name of the years of study reflects the tradition of this formation which takes again the expression ginnasio to define its first two years, inherited the previous period the establishment of the single college. Thus the classes “ 1a, 2a and 3a liceo ”, correspond to the “ 3a, 4a and 5a liceo ” of the other dies. This formation is generally delivered by the “historical” colleges of each city, of which the “Parini” and the “Berchet” in Milan, the “Mamiani”, the “Tasso” and the “Visconti” in Rome as well as “D' Oria” in Genoa. In 1993-1994, the ministry for the State education carried out a pilot project by instituting European classes in the boarding schools.

Liceo scientifico

scientific College: less attached to the traditions compared to the traditional colleges, the scientific colleges represent from now on the general die most widespread. While keeping the obligatory teaching of Latin until the baccalaureat, the scientific colleges are centered on mathematics and the natural science and propose several specialities (data processing, mathematics, living languages, etc). The quality of this type of formation is often development by national and European evaluations. Certain colleges from now on acquired a prestige comparable with the large traditional colleges.

Liceo linguistico (linguistic College)

linguistic College: This die specialized in the living languages enjoys a less good compared to the dies scientist and traditional reputation. Certain private establishments sought to develop this type of formation by the institution of European classes in order to dissociate traditional formations. It is nevertheless about a very marginal phenomenon.

Liceo artistico/musical

artistic/musical College: a very heteroclite die which gathers all the colleges attached to academies of music or schools of fine arts which develop the matters suitable for the establishment.

Although no college envisages a selection at the entry, the prestigious colleges impose very strict criteria of notation which carry out many students to change establishment during the first months and withrates of failure which can go up up to 50% in the first two years.

Technological and vocational training

The technical institutes and professional do not have for the moment not the right to use the name of college. However, these formations are completed with the passage of the maturità (baccalaureat) giving access any establishment of higher education, possibly after the passage of a test of admission. The technical trainings most widespread prepare with the trades of chartered accountant ( ragioniere ), of industrial expert ( perito industriale ) and geometrician-draftsman ( will geometra ).

The final examination of State (maturità)

The general, technological and professional secondary studies are completed by obtaining a diploma of State, in the past called maturità . Since 1997 the examination is based on three written tests and an oral test and takes into account the continuous assessment. The subjects of the written tests are chosen by the Minister for the State education and are sent to the colleges via the police force under closed fold.

Tests

First written test (Italian): Essay of general order or history, analyzes of a literary text, test or production of an article of newspaper.
Second written test (speciality): the second test relates to a discipline specific to the die. In the traditional colleges it is about a version of Greek or Latin, in the scientific colleges of an examination of mathematics, in the linguistic colleges of a drafting in foreign language.
Third written test (questionnaire): the third test relates to various disciplines approached in the form of QCM, short answers, synthesis.
oral Maintenance: oral maintenance can relate to all the disciplines approached like on the defense of a multi-field mini-memory written by the candidate.

The notation

The final notation is calculated while being based on the following coefficients:

20 points Continuous assessment
45 points Written tests (15 points per test)
35 points oral Maintenance
05 points No-claims bonus (granted by the jury for exceptional services with the proviso of having at least 15 points in continuous assessment and 70 with the tests).

The diploma is delivered with the students having more than 60 points out of 100. No mention is reproduced on the diploma, written in four official languages of the European Union.

Universities

In Italy, the autonomy of the universities is registered in the constitution since 1948. The governorship of the university is ensured there by the board of directors and an academic Senate.

Since the academic year 2001/2002, all the new formations apply the system “LMD”, known in Italy like “3+2”. Studies of 3rd cycle can lead to a dottorato di ricerca (doctorate). The reform comprised an integral upheaval of the higher education which offered one level of diploma, the laurea correspondent with a control which gave access under dottore . The objective of the reform being that to reduce the university abandonment by the establishment of a diploma professionnalisant after three years of studies, the title of dottore from now on is delivered to the holders of a license.

There exist public corporations of excellence like the National university of Pisa, the University Holy-Anne of Pisa or the international École higher of advanced studies than Trieste.

Others

There exists as in all the Europe various dies of professional training.

Private education

The public school is most widespread by far in Italy. There exist however private institutions, not necessarily religious. Except for some catholic or foreign establishments, the private colleges generally enjoy a bad reputation, since they often accept the students having failed in the public sector.

Criticisms

Some critical appear, putting in front of the appropriations and of the insufficient investments, or regretting the difficulty of being established and the drifts which it can bring. These critics see this system like obsolete and requiring to be reformed in-depth to fulfill the requirements of the company information and universalization. However, all the reform projects at the primary education and secondary level did not lead because of a strong opposition of the professors and parents of pupils.

The main objectives are those to reform the teaching structure of the colleges and the colleges. Indeed, the scuola media unica is the result of a policy of democratization of the education which goes back to the years 1960 which aimed at offering an exhaustive education level at the same time to enter the work world and to reach the colleges. After the reforms which prolonged compulsory education up to 16 years, this academic cycle lost its raison d'être. The governments of Olivier (1996-2001) proposed to amalgamate the elementary schools and the colleges in order to have a seven years continuing education. However, this step implies considerable problems in terms of training and statute of the teachers who come from different dies. The second critical point relates to the passage of the college to the college: so at the time of its institution the single college was to avoid a social cleavage after the elementary classes, from now on it is considered that the college should direct towards the various dies of the colleges towards the base of the merit. Indeed, strict separation between dies of colleges and their asymmetrical distribution on the territory prevents a true social diversity in the colleges. However, the proposals to soften the differences between section, to create footbridges or to prolong the period of common formation met the hostility of the parents and the teachers who fear that this can result in a deterioration of the quality of teaching.

Lastly, one of the traps more felt in the system of public education Italian is the complexity of the system of recruiting which must answer on a side with the principle of merit and equity in the contests, on another side to the need for guaranteeing a future with all the precarious professors engaged as substitutes or because of dissymmetries of the system which gathers the teachers most qualified in the large urban colleges.

See too

Internal bonds

External bonds

''' Ministero della Pubblica istruzione '''

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