Education in Italy
Encyclopedia : E : ED : EDU : Education in Italy
History
From Italian Unification to the Gentile Act
Italy, a state-wide school system, or Education System has existed since 1859, when the Legge Casati (Casati Act) made the responsible for the forthcoming Italian state (Italian unification happened in 1861) with the construction of state-funded boartake an exam at the beginning of September (the academic year usually begins around September 15th), and to repeat the academic year if they fail this exam. But from 1997 to the present day, a student may move up to the next year of secondary school, even if he didn't get a passing grade in some subjects (usually up to three subjects if the grades aren't terrible, i.e. a 5 (the passing grade is a 6.0))
Present Situation
Nowadays, there are two stages of education in Italy: primary and secondary education. Secondary education (Scuole Medie) is further divided in two: "Medie Inferiori", that correspond to the Middle School, and "Medie Superiori", that correspond to Secondary School.
Primary school can be preceded by 3 years of kindergarten, although kindergartens work like in Germany and attending them is not compulsory.
Primary school lasts 5 years, and there is no exam; the lower tier of "Scuole Medie" corresponds to Middle School, lasts 3 years and has an exam at the end of the third year, and "Scuole Superiori" lasts another 5 years, with an exam at the end of the last year. So, a typical Italian student is 19 when he can move to the university, while in the UK and other countries is 18.
Education until middle school is the same for everyone: although one can go to a private or to a state-funded school, the subjects studied are the same, except for the special school (i.e. for the blind, hearing-impaired, etc...)
When it comes to secondary school, the situation is different: there are a lot of different schools, differentiated by subjects and activities. The main division is between "Liceo", "Istituto tecnico" and "Istituto Professionale".
The "Liceo" concept was first created by Gentile, and in 1923 indicated a specific type of secondary school; now it rather indicates a class of secondary school more oriented toward the study of humanities. All the Licei have some subjects in common, such as italian literature or mathematics (although the effective number of hours for each subject varies), while other subjects are peculiar of a particular 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, Literature and Philosophy as its most important subjects. It's generally considered the most prestigious due to its difficulty, but there is a debate regarding the effective usefulness of some of the subjects taught, such as Ancient Greek.
- "Liceo Scientifico", where the emphasis is more on scientific and mathematical topics, such as algebra, geometry, chemistry or physics - although Latin is also taught.
- "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 Professionale" is a form of secondary education oriented toward more practical subjects, enabling the students to start searching for a job as soon as they finished the studies (sometimes sooner, as some schools tmay release a diploma after 3 years instead of 5) and is even more specific than the "Istituto tecnico", while the "Liceo" is a very generic school, covering a broad range of subjects and generally considered preparatory for the University.
Costs
State schools have an income-based fee, but are largely funded by the state. A typical year's fee for high school is around €300, and for university can reach €1400 if the student still lives with his family, although all levels of education are free if the family doesn't earn a certain income. Private schools, i.e. schools run by religious organizations, have much higher fees, and there isn't a fixed upper limit.
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 (there is no longer an exam 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, former Maturità)
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