Education in Italy.
As Skam Italia season 4 starts I thought I’d make a post about Italy’s education system, to briefly explain the situation. So first of all, school in Italy is divided in three different schools, that you attend in different times of your life: Age 6-11: Scuola elementare. Age 11-14: Scuola media. Age 14-19: Scuola superiore. After that you can choose if you want to go to university or not So the characters in Skam Italia are in scuola superiore. In season 1 they are at the end of the third year. In season 4 they will be at the end of the fifth (and last) year. You legally have to go to school until you are 16 years old. That means that most people will end high school but you may choose not to end high school and just have your middle school diploma. This is the general information, now we’ll go into more specific details. Private vs public Most people attend public schools, which are state funded and free. However, some people decide to attend a private school. There are two kind of private schools: Scuole paritarie: these schools are usually run by religious groups. Apart from the cost they are exactly like public schools: you do the same subjects you would do in a public school and they release the same certificates at the end (but sometimes your teacher is a nun). Scuole non paritarie: In these schools you don’t do the same subjects that you would do in a public school. For example my city has an American School, that is structured like an high school in the USA. Anyway a very small fraction of the population attended this kind of school, I only know a guy who did. Scuola elementare (elementary school) You start at 6 years old but if you are born in January/February you can start at 5 yo. Elementary school lasts 5 years. You stay at school from 8.30 to 16.30 and you eat lunch at school. You have 2 teachers who do all the subjects, and you will have one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Every teacher only has 1 class, and they do all of elementary school togheter. Scuola media (middle school). Scuola media lasts three years. At the end of this three years you have to take an exam. If you pass the exam you get a certificate and you can go to high school. If you don’t you have to repeat the year. You have the same class for the three years but now you have a lot of teachers. Some of them teach 3 or 4 subjects, some of them only one. The teachers rotate to the different classes. Subjects usually include: Italian (grammar + literature), history, geography, math, science, music, art, p.e., English, a second foreign language (usually Spanish or french) and a weird subject called technical education. School time is usually 8-14 but there can be little changes, depending on the school.
Scuola superiore. It usually lasts 5 years and at the end you have to an exam called maturità. You have the same class for every subject, for all five years. You have one teacher for one or two subjects, and teachers rotate to different classes. School week is usually Monday-Friday, but some schools make you go to school on Saturday too. School time changes from school to school but you usually do either 8-13 or 8-14, so you eat lunch at home. There isn’t a standard high school where you choose your subjects, but different kind of high schools that teach different subjects. Some subjects (like maths, Italian, p.e.) are mandatory and thought in every kind of school. The different schools are divided in three big groups. Istituto professionale: this kind of school has a very practical approach, because they’re meant to teach you a job. They last 3-5 years. Istituti tecnici: these schools are a middle ground between istituti professionali and licei. They teach practical subjects as well as theoretical ones. At the end of it you can either go to work or attend university. It lasts 5 years. Liceo: There are many kind, and you choose the one to go to based on the subjects that they teach. They last 5 years. The most attended are: Liceo classico: it‘s the oldest kind of school. The subjects include Latin, Ancient Greek, philosophy, history, and art history. Liceo scientifico: this is the school that the people in Skam Italia attend. There are two kind of liceo scientifico: one that includes Latin and one that includes Informatics. Other subjects are: Italian, English, maths, physics, p.e., science, philosophy, history, art history and technical design. It’s the most popular kind of liceo. Liceo linguistico: this school has a focus on languages, so you usually study 3 foreign languages (English + other two). Some study Latin in the first two years and then they stop. Liceo delle scienze umane: this school focuses on human studies, like psychology, sociology and pedagogy. Liceo artistico: this school focuses on art. You can choose the kind of art you want to study, like painting, sculpting, fashion design ecc... Double degrees Some schools allow you to get a double degree from another country. To do so, you have to study some subject in the language of your second degree and have a longer esame di maturità. Grades Grades go from 0 to 10, with 6 being the sufficiency. You get your grades during all the year with tests and interrogations. The year is divided into two quadrimestri, the first one ending around Christmas. At the end of every quadrimestre you get your pagella, that has all your total grades. If in the second quadrimestre you fail 1-3 classes you are rimandato, if you fail 4+ classes you are bocciato and have to repeat the year. Rimandato means that you have to take one exam in September for every class that you failed. If you pass your September exams you can continue with the next year, otherwise you have to repeat the year.
Voto di condotta When you get your pagella you also have something called voto di condotta. It’s a grade that shows how you behaved in that year. If your voto di condotta is below 6 you have to repeat the year, even if all of your grades are good. It’s very rare and occurs for example when someone physically harms someone else. Credits In the last three years of high school in your pagella you also have some crediti. They are given based on your overall media. The minimum is 5 and the maximum is 8. If you are rimandato you get standard credits, no matter your other grades. At the end of high school the total of your crediti is your starting score for the maturità. Alternanza scuola/lavoro You may remember alternanza from the clip in which Marti and Nico go on the terrace (Nico mentions doing the school radio because he needs hours for alternanza). It’s a total of 200 or 400 hours (depending if you attended a liceo or a istituto tecnico) in which you need to do some kind of internship. It was introduced in a recent school reform called “la buona scuola” and caused a lot of controversy. Anyway if you don’t complete your hours in the last three years of high school you can’t do your maturità. Religion This is another topic that always sparks a big debate. Basically, because of an agreement Mussolini signed with the Catholic Church, we have some hours of religious education in school. It’s one hour a week and you can opt out of it. There isn’t an official program and it’s up to the teacher to decide what to do in class (some of them just show their students a bunch of films until the school year ends). There are no official grades and at the end of the year the teacher makes a valuation that doesn’t influence your media. If you decide to opt out of the religion hour you can either go home early or pass an hour at school (depends on when the hour is and how old you are). Giustificazioni If you skip a day of school or enter school later you have to bring a giustificazione, a note signed from one of your parents/legal tutor. However when you turn 18 you are legally an adult, so you can sign your own giustificazione. That’s why in the last year of high school almost every day there is someone who doesn’t show up or goes home early. You may remember someone talking about this in season 1, at Federico’s 18th birthday party.
Maturità At the end of high school you have to take your maturity exam. They changed it last year, so I took a different maturità than the one the kids are doing now. The maturità takes place between the end of June and the beginning of July and is a very big deal, because it covers everything you have studied in the fifth year. It’s made of two written tests and an oral exam. The tests are called prima prova and seconda prova. There used to be a terza prova but it’s been eliminated. The prima prova is an essay. You can choose from a variety of titles and you have 6 hours to complete it. The grade goes from 0 to 20. The titles are the same in all of Italy and all of Italy takes the exam at the exact same time. The seconda prova changes according to the kind of high school you attended. In the liceo scientifico you have a math/physics exam. You usually have 4 hours to complete your exam. The grades are from 0 to 20. In the oral you have to answer some questions about things you studied in the last year (one question per subject). Half of the examinators are your teachers, the other half are teachers from other schools, so you can be judged in the most correct way possible. The scores you got on the different prove + your credits from the last three years will make up your final grade. It goes from 60 to 100. If it’s under 60 you have to repeat the year. That’s all! If you have any question about education in Italy (or something else) feel free to ask!
