Education in Italy

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History

In Italy, a state-wide school system, or Education System has existed since 1859, when the Legge Casati (Casati Act) mandated educational responsibilities for the forthcoming Italian state (Italian unification took place in 1861). The Casati Act made primary education compulsory, and had the goal of reducing the illiteracy. This law gave control of primary education to the single towns, of secundary education to the Regioni (counties), and the universities were managed by the State. Anyway, even with the Casati Act and compulsory education, in rural (and southern) areas often children weren't sent to school (the rate of children enrolled in primary education will reach 90% only after 70 years) and the illiteracy rate (which was near 80% in 1861) took more than 50 years to halve.

The next important law concerning Italian education system was the Legge Gentile. This act was issued in 1923, thus when Mussolini and his Partito Nazionale Fascista were in power. In fact, Gentile was appointed with 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 somehow based on a ladder system: after the first five years of primary instruction, one could choose the 'Scuola media', that would give furter access to the "liceo" and other secundary instruction, or the 'avviamento al lavoro', that was meant to give a quick entry into the low strates of workforce. He created the Liceo Classico, as peak of secundary education and with the goal to form the future upper classes, and Technical, Commercial and Industrial institutes. The Liceo Classico was the only secondary school that give access to all types of university. The influence of Gentile's Idealism was great, and he put the Catholic religion as "fundament and crowning" of education.

In 1962 the 'avviamento al lavoro' was abolished, and all children until 14 years had to follow a single program, encompassing primary education (scuola elementare) and middle school (scuola media)

From 1962 to present days, the main structure of Italian primary (and secondary) education was unchanged, even if some changes were made: a narrowing of the gap between males and females, a change in the structure of secundary school (legge Berlinguer) and the creation of new 'licei', 'istituti tecnici' and 'istituti professionali', giving the student more choices in their paths.

In 1999, Italian university system switched from the old system (vecchio ordinamento), that did feature a 5-years long degree (the Laurea), to the new system (nuovo ordinamento), largely based on the guidelines of the Bologna Process, and so featuring a 3-years Laurea (Bachelor's Degree), followed by 2 years (Laurea Specialistica - Master's Degree), a "credit system" to quantify the amount of work needed by each course and exam (25 work hours are worth a credit) and enhanced possibilities to change course of studies, or to continue the studies in a foreign country after the first 3 years

Primary and secondary schools

Today, there are two stages of education in Italy: primary and secondary. Primary school can be preceded by 3 years of non-compulsory nursery school (or kindergarten).

Primary school lasts 5 years. Until middle school, the educational curriculum is uniform for all: although one can attend a private or state-funded school, the subjects studied are the same, except in special schools for the blind, the hearing-impaired, and so forth.

Secondary education (Scuole medie) is further divided in two stages: "Medie Inferiori", which correspond to the Middle School grades, and "Medie Superiori", which correspond to the Secondary School level.

The lower tier of "Scuole Medie" corresponds to Middle School, lasts 3 years, and involves an exam at the end of the third year; "Scuole Superiori" lasts another 5 years. Every tier involves an exam at the end of the final year, required to access the following tier.

The secondary school situation varies, since 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". Any kind of secondary school grants access to any faculty at any University.

The "Liceo" concept was created by Gentile, and in 1923 indicated a specific type of secondary school; today, it rather refers to a class of secondary schools oriented towards the study of the arts and sciences. All of the Licei have some subjects in common, such as Italian Literature, or Mathematics (although the effective number of hours spent on each subject varies), while other subjects are peculiar to a particular type of Liceo (ie. Ancient Greek in the Liceo Classico or Geometrical Drawing in the Liceo Artistico).

The different types of Liceo are:

• "Liceo Classico", which features Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian, History and Philosophy as its most important subjects.
• "Liceo Scientifico", where the emphasis is more on scientific and mathematical topics, such as geometry, calculus, chemistry or physics - although Latin, Philosophy and literature are also taught in dept. Together with the Liceo Classico is the most prestigious in Italy.
• "Liceo Linguistico" puts emphasis on language learning and languages taught are usually English, French, Spanish and German - although recently Russian has been introduced as well.
• "Liceo Artistico", which is oriented toward arts teaching - in a theoretical (ie. History of the arts) and practical (ie. drawing sessions) sense.

The "Istituto Tecnico" (Technical Institute), called in Italian ITIS (Istituto Tecnico Industriale Statale, i.e. National Technical/Industrial Institute) and ITC (Istituto Tecnico Commerciale i.e. Technical/Commercial Institute) is more oriented toward practical subjects, such as aeronautics, business administration, computer science and chemistry.

The "Istituto Professionale" offers a form of secondary education oriented toward more practical subjects, enabling the students to start searching for a job as soon as they have completed their studies (sometimes sooner, as some schools offer a diploma after 3 years instead of 5) and is even more specific in terms of vocational course offerings than the "Istituto Tecnico."

"Liceo" education involves a broad, specifically academic curriculum and is generally considered necessary for University preparation.

A typical Italian student is 19 when he or she enters university, while in the UK and other countries, 18 is the more common age.

Costs

State schools charge an income-based fee but are largely funded by the state. A typical year's fee for high school is around €100, and for university can reach €2500 if the student still lives with his family, although all levels of education are free if the family doesn't earn a certain income (about €10000 pa).

Private schools, i.e. schools run by religious organizations, charge much higher fees, and there is no fixed upper limit for these.

University

Italian Universities have a long and foregoing history, beginning in mediaeval times with the institution of the University of Salerno in the ninth century, and the University of Bologna in 1088. Some of the most known italian university were founded in the subsequent centuries: the University of Padova in 1222, and after two year the University of Naples founded by Frederick II, but also the universities of and Firenze, founded in 1308 and 1321, or Pisa, Pavia and Torino. Nowadays, the vast majority of universities in Italy are public, and they're usually named after the city or the geografic region they're serving (i.e. University of Florence or University of Eastern Piedmont), and styled "Università degli studi di..." (University of Studies of..., after the Latin title of 'universitas studiorum').

There is also a small number of private-funded universities, acknowledged by the State and given power of conferring academic degrees: among those are some renowed universities, like the Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, being a school of excellence in economics, or the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, that encompasses a number of universities backed by the Catholic Church.

Nowadays, Italian universities follow the guidelines of the Bologna Process, and the courses are usually divided in two: the "Laurea" (3 years, roughly equivalent to a bachelor's degree) and the "Laurea Specialistica" (2 years, roughly equivalent to an master's degree). However, it's worth noting that stopping at the BA level is widely viewed as a poor choice, and the majority of students still go for the "Laurea Specialistica", having to face competition with older students, who graduated before the Bologna Process and therefore followed a 5-year course of studies (Laurea Vecchio Ordinamento). Switching to the guidelines of the Bologna Process has been a major source of distress both for students and faculties, and the Nuovo Ordinamento brought forth a wide range of possibilities, who the universities explored doing changes when needed - the adjusting process is going on even as of 2007.

University system

The university system in Italy is closer to that of the United Kingdom than to that of the United States. Students concentrate on one subject throughout their degree, and so the academic major system does not apply. However, sometimes a university can offer different undergraduate courses, each specializing in a different sector of the same subject. For example, in Psychology some courses are more geared toward Cognitive Psychology, others more toward Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology or perhaps Psychology of Work or Evolutionary Psychology.

A typical year in an Italian university is divided into two semesters. Courses last no more than a semester and examinations are held at the beginning of the academic year (September), the middle of the year (mid January to the end of February) and at the end of the year (mid May to mid July). Grades are expressed on a scale from 1 to 30, with 18 being the minimum required to pass an examination.

At the end of each "tier" (Laurea and Laures Specialistica) there is a final exam, often requiring the exposition of a thesis or dissertion that can be based on original experimental work by the student, or on a review of academic literature. The final grade is determined by means of a weighted mean of the grades of the single courses, converted to a scale running from 1 to 110. Since the minimum grade to pass an individual examination is 18, the minimum overall grade is 66. To this is added some points for the dissertation (ranging to 3-4 to 7-8). If the overall score (mean of examination grades plus dissertation points) is more than 110, then a degree cum laude is awarded.

School years

• Primary education
  • Scuola elementare (primary school)
    • Year 1, age 6 to 7
    • Year 2, age 7 to 8
    • Year 3, age 8 to 9
    • Year 4, age 9 to 10
    • Year 5, age 10 to 11 (no examination at this point)

• Secondary education
  • Scuola media (middle school)
    • Year 1, age 11 to 12
    • Year 2, age 12 to 13
    • Year 3, age 13 to 14 (Licenza di Scuola Media)
  • Scuola superiore (secondary school)
    • Year 1, age 14 to 15
    • Year 2, age 15 to 16
    • Year 3, age 16 to 17
    • Year 4, age 17 to 18
    • Year 5, age 18 to 19 (Licenza di scuola superiore, formerly Maturità)

• University
  • Laurea Breve [Bachelor's degree]
    • Year 1, age 19 to 20
    • Year 2, age 20 to 21
    • Year 3, age 21 to 22
  • Laurea specialistica [Master's degree]
  • Year 1, age 22 to 23
  • Year 2, age 23 to 24

 

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Category: Education in Italy

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