Requirements for appointment

School heads in State schools are called ‘school managers’ (Dirigenti scolastici). School managers are recruited through national open competitions advertised every three years and organised at regional level. Places put up for competition are calculated on the posts expected available in the relevant three-year period. 

To access the competition, the requirements are:

• To be a teacher or an educator in a State institution with a permanent contract, with at least five years of service (one year corresponds to 180 days of service),
• To hold a second-cycle university or AFAM qualification.

The selection is organised in a written test, an interview and the subsequent evaluation of the candidate’s qualifications. In case of a very high number of candidates, it also necessary to pass a pre-selection test with multiple-choice questions on cultural and professional themes. 

The written test consists of open questions on a range of cultural and professional themes and of multiple-choice questions to verify English language proficiency of at least level B2 of CEFR. The cultural and professional themes go from the administration and organisation of schools and management of human resources to the organisation of teaching and planning of the educational offer to European education systems. 

The interview aims at verifying the candidate’s knowledge of the same themes as the written test and her/his problem-solving capacity, as well as her/his digital and English language knowledge. Those who pass the interview are admitted to the final phase of the competition, i.e. the evaluation of the candidate’s qualifications. The final score is the sum of all points obtained in the three phases, excluding the pre-selection test.

Candidates who pass the tests are included in a regional list and assigned to vacant posts by the relevant Regional school office.

Newly appointed school managers spend one-year training and probationary period aimed at developing, consolidating, and verifying the professional competences of the school manager. Training activities are organised for a total of minimum 50 hours. The evaluation of the probationary period is carried out by the managers of the Regional school offices. Those who successfully pass the probationary period are confirmed in their position, while those who receive a negative evaluation have their contract revoked and are relocated to their previous position.

The appointment of school managers is regulated by the DM 194/2022.

Contents revised: Aprile 2025

Conditions of service

School managers have a permanent private contract. The Regional school office (USR) assigns the school manager to a school for a three-year period. 

The national contract regulates both the conditions of service (probationary period, tasks, holidays, leaves, mobility, evaluation, work termination, etc.) and the salary.

Salary

The salary is made up of a fixed and a variable amount; the variable amount is established at regional level according to the achievements. The statutory salary ranges from € 65 847 to € 79 447. The following items make up the annual statutory salary:

• The basic salary, which is the same for all managers of the public administration,
• The position-based salary, which is made up of a fixed amount and a variable amount calculated at regional level according to the complexity of the school (size, risk areas, etc.),
• The result-based salary, which is the share of the salary based on the results of the evaluation process,
• The individual seniority pay, which is exclusively addressed to school managers who were in service before 2001.

For further details on salaries and allowances for school managers, see also Teachers' and school heads' salaries and allowances in Europe in the Data and Visuals section of the Eurydice website.

Evaluation of school managers

School managers undergo an annual evaluation according to principles established by law 107/2015, by the collective labour contracts and by the DM 47/2025, which has established the national system for the evaluation of school managers and has defined the organisational aspects that apply from school year 2024/2025.

The evaluation of school managers aims at verifying their professional competences in the following domains:

• organisational and managerial competences in terms of fairness, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of the managerial action,
• competences related to the enhancement of human resources,
• competences concerning the analysis of the school reality, as well as the planning of initiatives aimed at its improvement,
• competences concerning relations with the school community, the territory and other institutions.

The evaluation process involves the following subjects:

• the heads of the Departments of the Ministry of education and merit, who define the goals that are subjected to evaluation,
• the Directors of the Regional school offices (Uffici scolastici regionali - USR), who integrate the national goals with one specific regional goal and assign these objectives to the school managers,
• the heads of the provincial offices of the Ministry of education and/or the inspectors of the Ministry, who support the Directors of the Regional school offices,
• the school managers themselves who can supplement the available information with evidence of any obstacles that have prevented the achievement of the objectives, or evidence of the achievement of the assigned objective.

The phases of the evaluation procedure are:

1. Definition of the national objectives: within July of each year,
2. Definition of the regional objective and assignment of the goals to the school managers: within August of each school year,
3. Evaluation, integration and assignment of the final score: within November of the subsequent school year,
4. Possible adversarial phase.

Based on the achievement of the national and regional objectives, the school manager is assigned a score of up to 100 points:

• 80 – 100 points: outstanding
• 55 – 79 points: good
• 31 – 54 points: sufficient
• ≤ 30 points: failure to achieve the objectives

The result of the evaluation process influences the determination and payment of performance pay, which is a part of the manager's remuneration.

Source: Ministero dell’istruzione e del merito, DM 47/2025.