2025
The National system for the evaluation of school managers
On 21 February 2025, the Minister of education and merit has signed the Decree no. 28 on the adoption of the National system for the evaluation of school managers.
The evaluation system aims at verifying the competences of school managers, in particular for the transparent and efficient management, for the development of human resources, for the improvement of school activities and for the relations with the territory and other institutions.
The evaluation is organised in three phases:
- Definition of the objectives
- Assignment of the objectives
- Measurement and evaluation of the results
- Possible adversarial phase
The procedure starts in July of each year with the definition of the objectives for the following school year and ends within November of the following year.
The subjects involved in these three phases are, beside the school managers, the heads of the Department of the Ministry of education and the heads of the Regional school offices and of the territorial offices at provincial level.
The results of the assessment procedure determine the part of school managers’ pay that is calculated on their performance.
The new assessment procedures apply starting from school year 2024/2025. In the transitional phase, the objectives will be defined within March 2025 and the procedure will end within November 2026.
The Decree is being registered.
2024
Measures for the assessment of pupils and students
On 16 October the law no. 150/2024 has been published in the Official Journal. It concerns the reform of summary judgements in primary schools and of the assessment of students’ conduct that was approved definitively by Parliament on 25 September (please see below).
The measures introduced by law 150 are:
1) At primary level, the periodic and final assessment of learning and conduct will be expressed through summary judgements (excellent, good, fair, sufficient, insufficient, seriously insufficient) that replace the existing descriptive judgements. The judgements will be supplemented by a detailed description of the level of learning achieved by the pupil in each discipline.
2) The assessment of the student’s conduct refers to the entire school year. In lower and upper secondary schools, if the behavioural assessment is less than six tenths, the class council decides on non-admission to the next class or to the final state examination.
If the assessment is equal to six tenths in the behaviour, the class council, during the final assessment, suspends the judgement and assigns the student a critical essay on active and supportive citizenship; failure to submit the essay before the start of the following school year or an insufficient assessment by the class council shall result in the student's non-admission to the next school year or to the final exam.
The measures will enter into force on 31 October. However, the application of the measures as of the 2024/2025 school year depends on further action on the existing legislation and the issuing by the Ministry of Education and Merit of a special ordinance with operational guidelines for schools.
Civic education
In September 2024, the Ministry of education and merit has published the ‘Guidelines for the teaching of civic education’ (Linee guida per l’insegnamento dell’educazione civica, annexed to the DM 183/2024). From school year 2020/2021, ‘civic education' is a compulsory and cross-curricular subject at all levels of education, preprimary included, and these Guidelines replace the former ones issued in 2020.
According to the new Guidelines, the contents of civic education refer to three main areas:
- Italian Constitution (general principles, the organisation of the State and of regional and local authorities, symbols of the Italian and EU institutions, study of general laws and meaning of legality, etc.);
- Economic development and sustainability (valuing work and entrepreneurship, protection of the environment and of heritage, health education, respect for animals, etc.);
- Digital citizenship (responsible use of technologies, awareness of risks, approaches to the use of technologies). The use of smartphones by pupils and teachers is forbidden up to lower secondary education for both personal and didactic purposes.
The Guidelines also describe the learning targets and achievements, for the first and second cycle of education respectively, that pupils are expected to achieve through the teaching of civic education.
Revision of some measures for the assessment of pupils and students
On 25 September 2024, the Chamber of Deputies has approved the Bill n. 1380 containing, among the others, dispositions that revise the existing measures on the assessment of students' behaviour at secondary level and the revision of judgements at primary level.
As for primary education, the bill foresees that summary judgements will replace the existing analytical statements based on four levels of attainment. The Minister of education and merit will publish an ordinance to detail the new assessment measures.
As for student's behaviour, which is at present assessed with a synthetic judgement at lower secondary level, the Bill foresees that it will be replaced by an assessment in tenths. For all secondary levels, an assessment lower than 6/10 leads to grade retention or non-admission to the final State exams. An assessment equal to 6/10, the student is required to draw up a report on active citizenship.
Another measure envisaged by the Bill is the payment up to 10 000 EUR to the school, in case of conviction for offences committed against the head teacher or school staff.
The Bill needs now to be published on the Official Journal and will enter into force after 15 days from its publication.
New models for the national certification of competences
In January 2024, the Ministry of education and merit has published the DM 14/2024 containing the new models for the certification of competences acquired by pupils at the end of primary, lower secondary and compulsory education, as well as at the end of adult education courses.
The certification models are based on the key competences for lifelong learning, while they differ as for the analytic description of the competences.
The certification of the competences acquired during and at the end of upper secondary education will be introduced gradually starting from a network of schools. This trial phase is necessary given the variety of types of upper secondary paths, both general and vocational.
Certifications will be released by schools and delivered to families and to the schools of the next level and, in case of the certifications released at the end of lower and compulsory education, competences are included in the personal student's e-portfolio.
As for adult learners, the certifications are delivered to the adults themselves, except for minors.
The Ministry will soon provide school with specific guidelines that will be updated once the implementation of the certification of competences at upper secondary level is completed.
Introduced a new technological-vocational path
In December 2023, the Ministry of education and merit launched the experimentation of a new technological-vocational path (filiera tecnologico-professionale). The trial phase will start in school year 2024/2025 and will be based on projects submitted by networks made up by at least a technical or vocational institute, one accredited training agency operating in the regional vocational training system (IeFP), if existing in the relevant region, and one Higher technological institute (ITS Academy). Technical/vocational studies last four years, instead of the ordinary five years, and end with the final State examination, like all the other upper secondary paths. After the State exam students have acquired the competences to enter the labour work or can decide to go further in their studies by attending two optional years at higher technological institutes.
Enrolments to this new upper secondary vocational path have started in January 2024.
2023
Published the Decree on the initial training and recruitment of secondary teachers
On 26 September, the Prime Minister Decree (DPCM 4 agosto 2023) on the new initial training for secondary school teachers, was published, as set out in Law 72/2022 that modified the Decree 59/2017, which had introduced the former reform of the initial training and recruitment for secondary teachers (please see below for a summary of the contents of the DPCM).
Signed the Decrees on the initial training and recruitment of secondary teachers
On 2 August, the Prime Minister Decree (DPCM) was signed, defining the new initial training courses for secondary school teachers, as set out in Law 72/2022, which introduced the reform of the training and recruitment system for teachers at this school level.
According to the reform, future secondary school teachers will have to acquire, in addition to a master's degree, at least 60 credits in qualifying training courses. Courses of 30 or 36 credits are also envisaged for those who have already served at least three school years and for those who have obtained 24 credits under the previous training system.
The DPCM, currently awaiting publication, defines the content and structure of the training. Of the 60 credits, at least 10 must be acquired in the pedagogical area and at least 20 credits in direct or indirect practical training.
The training courses end with a final qualifying examination that includes a written test and the simulation of a lesson. The qualification is of unlimited duration and is not in itself a qualification to work as a tenured teacher, which can only be accessed through competitive procedures.
Lastly, it provides for a system of course accreditation by the National Agency for the Evaluation of the University System and Research (ANVUR), which will also carry out a periodic evaluation of the courses in order to ensure the homogeneity of the training offered.