The division of the school system is divided into three levels: primary, low secondary and high secondary and than upper education.

The primary level starts at the age of 5-6 until the age of 11. Before, the children can go to the nursery school from the age of three years. This school is not compulsory but is now rather normal to send the children to these schools.

After the primary school follows the secondary school until 14 years of age. At the age of 16 the compulsory education is completed. The compulsory education is free, families have to pay for books only in the secondary school.

At the end of the compulsory education, children take an exam and those who pass can start their higher education.

The diploma we get at the end of the higher education gives access to professions or to the University.

Due to the constantly instability of the Italian governments, changing the ministers each of them seem to be interested in putting in place a new reform even if and it doesn’t matter if the minister is not qualified and competent in the matter. The last we had in our Parliament for example is graduated in medicine not even a teacher and of course he can’t know the reality of the school.

That’s why we have had three school reforms in ten years! It seems that the only aim of the various ministers is to lead the ir names to a law so to be remembered in history (Berlinguer, Moratti, Fioroni are the latest in chronologic order). The “Berlinguer reform” was based on the idea that education is a public matter and thus it should be supplied equally to everybody, while “Moratti reform”, by contrast, was based on the idea that the benefits of education are mainly private and that the individuals should be free to choose the type of school they prefer. About “Fioroni reform” I don’t know what to say: BUT, IN ANY CASE, WHAT A MESS! I CHALLENGE YOU TO UNDERSTAND SOMETHING!

As a result of the above, Italian school has to live in a trouble situation!

You can disagree that if the ministers aren’t specialists they should ask help to people involved (teachers, students, parents…) so to optimize the school organization but this is too much logic and in fact it doesn’t happen.

Now I give you some examples. Due to the last reform, based on old training debts and recoveries of the literary and scientific subjects we have to stay at school all the day and for all the days of the week (Monday to Saturday). Is there any of you who could suggest me a way to study the present subjects when coming back home, tired and after eight hours spent at school?

Besides this there are many other debates undergoing:

- about the cuts of human and financial school resources. It always seems that the government doesn’t currently have the necessary funds to cover the whole reforms.

- about the safeguard of the Technical School. It’s impossible to foreseen only “Grammar schools- Licei” (with access to university) and vocational training courses (alternating school and work experience) with no access to the university. The entrepreneurs wants to employ people with solid technical basis that only Technical School can provide.

- about the University on how to avoid too many failures against too many enrolments.

Then I think it would be better to make changes not only to bring Italian education in line with the rest of the European Union but also to create a more flexible system so to adapt the school to the industrial development.

Written by Giulia Rosso (free8@itcgbianchi.it)