General information - Italy

The Italian Education System 

This summary aims to present an overall picture of the Italian system of education by giving an account of its many variables, insights to make comparisons and to detect the consistency of the phenomena, determining the percentage of changes. 

The main feature that determines the structure - texture, distribution, mobility – of the teaching staff, classes, hours, provision of support services, maintenance, rationalisation or closure of schools is the annual total amount of pupils and students officially enrolled in system of education.

State schools continue to record a slight increase in pupils in comparison with previous years, reaching over 7.8 million units. To this we need to add private schools, both recognised and non-recognised which together exceed the amount of one million bringing the total number of children enrolled into the Italian education system to nine million in total. 

The state education service, with about 42 000 schools, is situated in almost all Italian towns, moving activities and structures like any other field of the public administration. 

Overall, the state education system maintains about 1,065,000 units of school staff. 

The process of rationalisation, classes, pupils and ratio teacher/student, does not produce any results in inclusion and integration of students with disabilities: the table below shows the situation of support teacher staff, assigned to the integration of pupils with special needs, during the last decade.

Trends of support teachers

Green: support teachers with permanent work contract

Purple: support teachers with temporary work contract

Blue: total amount of support teachers

In the current school year, support teachers reach almost 90,000 units placed in different orders of state school. 

Tables below show the amount of teaching staff for the school years 2008/2009 and 2009/2010.

Data shows, as mentioned, that the process of rationalisation of the educational system did not effect school inclusion and educational support to pupils and students with special needs.

Subject Teachers and Support Teachers for school years 2008/2009 and 2009/2010

Light orange and light blue: amount of subject teachers - Dark orange and dark blue: amount of support teachers

Subject Teachers and Support Teachers for school years 2008/2009 and 2009/2010

 Light orange and light blue: amount of subject teacher - Dark orange and dark blue: amount of support teacher

Support teachers are counted in the number of ordinary teaching staff (that is calculated in comparison with the total amount of the school population) and they can also be nominated annually “until the end of the activities” in addition and in derogation of ordinary support staff according to the situation and depending on the need of the pupils and students.

Distribution of Support Teachers and Subject Teachers for level of education

Light orange and light blue: amount of subject teachers  - Dark orange and dark blue: amount of support teachers

From left to right: Pre-primary School; Primary School; Junior High School; Senior High School 

In 2009/10, the number of students with disabilities and special needs included in state schools from pre-primary to secondary is 181,177 units, slightly more than last year. 

During the mentioned period, this slight increase has also resulted in a significant increase in the number of students with disabilities enrolled in secondary education. 

The constant increase of people with disabilities included in the last decade, compared with a substantial stability of the levels of the total amount of school population lead to a ratio of students with disabilities and the school population of 2.3%.

However, the impact of the number of pupils with disabilities in the total population varies according to the districts studied during the analysis: 3.3% in junior secondary school (the level retained the highest incidence); 2.6 % in primary school; 1, 3% in nursery and pre-primary and 1.8% in senior secondary. If the values are placed in sequence by level of school (from childhood to secondary), we can see that the value tends to increase with the progress of education, highlighting how the emergence of the difficulties of learning become evident disabilities, limiting the acquisition of knowledge, competences and relationships with consequent recourse to the certification of disability aimed to obtain support and educational measures.  

Distribution of Pupils Supported (for Disabilities or Special Educational Needs) for level of education (Light Green: Pre-primary; Pink: Primary; Yellow: Junior Secondary; Blue: Senior Secondary) 

To see data in details, please consult the page: SNE data – Italy  http://www.european-agency.org/country-information/italy/national-overview/sne-data