Curriculum, subjects, number of hours

The curriculum is based on guidelines that provide schools with a framework they must comply with when defining their own curriculum. To this end the guidelines describe the general and specific learning objectives referred to the level of education concerned and to the compulsory subjects, and, in some cases, the timetables.

Guidelines are drawn up by teams made up of experts of the Ministry and external experts, with the involvement of stakeholder. Schools adapt the guidelines to their educational and teaching needs and create their own curriculum that reflects the specific context where they operate. The school curriculum is included in the Three-year education offer plan (Piano triennale dell’offerta formativa – PTOF), which is the document each school adopts to describe its cultural and planning identity as well as its curricular, extra-curricular, educational, and organisational projects.

At lower secondary level the reference documents for the curriculum are:

• the National guidelines for the curriculum of preprimary school and the first cycle of education (Indicazioni nazionali per il curricolo della scuola dell'infanzia e del primo ciclo di istruzione), issued in 2012, from now on referred to as 'National guidelines'
• the National guidelines and new scenarios of 2018 (Indicazioni nazionali e nuovi scenari).

A new version of the National guidelines for the curriculum will apply from school year 2026/2027.

According to the current National guidelines, the general aim of school education is the harmonious and comprehensive development of the individual, according to the principles of the Italian Constitution and the European cultural tradition, to be achieved through the promotion of knowledge, respect for individual diversity and the active involvement of students and their families. The purpose of lower secondary education is to enable pupils to acquire the fundamental knowledge and skills to develop their basic cultural competences. 

For each subject, the National guidelines set the goals for the development of skills pupils are expected to reach at the end of lower secondary education. Such goals are prescriptive, meaning that schools must comply with these goals when they create their own curriculum. In addition, the National guidelines set the learning objectives, which identify knowledge and skills considered indispensable to achieve the goals.

The document called 'National guidelines and new scenarios' focuses on aspects already existing in the National guidelines of 2012 giving them a renewed reading in the light of the competences of citizenship and sustainability that involve all the teaching areas. 

As for the music path, the curriculum is included in specific national guidelines developed in line with the National guidelines for the curriculum. These specific guidelines identify skill development goals and learning objectives common to all instrumental specialities and those specific for the different musical instruments, divided into five families: string instruments, wind instruments, percussion instruments, keyboard instruments, plucked string instruments (Decreto Interministeriale 176/2022).

In 2023, the Ministry of education and merit has published the Guidelines for STEM (Linee guida per le discipline STEM) that apply to all the levels of the education. As for the first cycle of education, which includes primary and lower secondary education, the Guidelines provide suggestions for teaching STEM disciplines in an interconnected manner to make pupils acquire knowledge and competences and reach the goals foreseen by the National guidelines. Such suggestions range from the teaching through experience, to the critical and creative use of technology, to inclusive teaching, the promotion of creativity and curiosity, the development of pupils’ autonomy and the use of laboratories.

Subjects and number of hours

The compulsory subjects taught for the 3 years of lower secondary school are: Italian, English, a second foreign language, history, geography, mathematics, sciences, technology, music, arts, sports education, civic education, Catholic religion/alternative activities. 

English is a compulsory subject in all the three grades of lower secondary school (DPR 89/2009). The teaching timetable for English is three hours/week. According to the National guidelines for the curriculum, pupils are expected to finish this level of education with an English proficiency of A2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). Teachers are specialists. 

The second foreign language can be either French, or German or Spanish. The decision of which second foreign language to offer is taken at school level. A school can theoretically offer one, two or all the three foreign languages; however, one class is taught only one language. The second foreign language has a timetable of two hours/week. 

At the request of parents and depending on the availability of school staff, the teaching of English language can be increased to 5 hours per week, using the two hours allocated to the teaching of a second foreign language. These can also be used for teaching Italian to foreign students.

In the areas of the twelve minority languages, schools autonomously establish how to teach the relevant language and culture, according to families' request. Schools can also use the minority language as a teaching language together with Italian (legge 482/1999).

Civic education has been introduced in 2020/2021 (law 92/2019) as a compulsory subject, replacing the former ‘Citizenship and Constitution’. 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 in class is forbidden, for both personal and didactic purposes, up to lower secondary education.

The Ministry has provided schools with specific ‘Guidelines for the teaching of civic education’ (Linee guida per l’insegnamento dell’educazione civica, annexed to the DM 183/2024). Civic education has a specific timetable of at least 33 hours/year and its teaching must involve all the other curricular subjects without increasing the overall weekly and annual timetable. Civic education is to be considered and evaluated as a separate subject, although its teaching can be considered cross-curricular.

Schools must include in the curriculum the teaching of Catholic religion that, on the contrary, is optional for pupils. Families make their choice the first year of primary school for the whole first cycle of education and are allowed to modify their choice at any time before starting a new school year. The specific learning objectives for Catholic religion are established by State regulations (DPR 11 February 2010) in agreement with the Italian Catholic Church. Teachers are specialists and need to pass a specific training according to both the State and the Church legislation. Pupils not attending Catholic religion either carry out extra-curricular activities linked to the values of citizenship with the support of teachers, or do not attend school. Schools include the alternative activities in their own curriculum. 

The tables below show the weekly teaching times for the two different school-time models:

• compulsory timetable of 30 hours/week,
• extended timetable of 36/40 hours/week.

One hour corresponds to 60 minutes. These tables apply to each of the three years of lower secondary education.

Table 1 - Mainstream compulsory timetable (30 hours per week)

Table 2 - Extended timetable (from 36 to 40 hours per week)

*The table above shows the maximum number of hours for the 'extended timetable'. The school can autonomously decide on a lower weekly limit of hours, which must be no less than 36 hours. The timetable always includes lunchtime, by reducing the weekly timetable of subjects with a greater number of hours.

(Source: DPR 89/2009) 

These timetables also apply to students following the music programme, which includes the following activities:

• individual and group instrumental lessons
• music theory and reading
• ensemble music

Instrumental, music theory and ensemble music lessons are held for three hours per week (99 hours/year). The 99 hours are additional in the 30-hour timetable, while in the extended timetable they are counted within the limits of the 36-40 weekly hours. Schools can organise the additional hours independently, respecting the average of three hours per week (DM 176/2022).

Teaching methods and materials

The Constitution of the Italian Republic establishes the principle of freedom of teaching. However, the choice and use of teaching methods and materials must be consistent with each school's ‘three-year educational offer plan’ (Piano triennale dell’offerta formativa – PTOF), which, in turn, must be consistent with the general and educational objectives of the different branches and levels of study established at national level in the steering documents for the curriculum.

Without prejudice to the freedom of teaching, the National guidelines for the curriculum identify some basic methodological approaches, such as, for example, the enhancement of the experience and knowledge of pupils, the promotion of exploration and discovery activities, the encouragement of cooperative learning, the development of awareness of one's method of learning, in-lab learning, etc.

Teachers choose the textbooks and other teaching materials for their classes and submit their choice to the teachers’ assembly that formally approves it. This formal procedure is not mandatory for schools and teachers. Textbooks can be in digital or mixed version (mixed version is meant as either paper version or paper and digital version), all with integrative digital contents. The Ministry has also described the technical and technological characteristics for all the different versions of textbooks (DM 781/2013). In any case, textbooks and other teaching tools must be consistent with the curriculum and with the three-year educational offer plan of the school (PTOF).

In addition, for specific subjects, schools can create their own digital teaching tools that students will use as textbooks. Teachers develop such tools in class during the teaching hours and in collaboration with the other class teachers and students. Schools can register their products and share them with other State schools (legge 128/2013). 

Textbooks are not free for parents. Every year, the Ministry sets the total spending limit of textbooks. Teachers should choose the textbooks within this total spending limit. Measures introduced to help parents deal with the cost of textbooks also include rental and the free loan of textbooks, as well as the partial reimbursement of costs.

299Spending limit of textbooks, school year 2025/2026, EUR:

Source: DM 58/2025, Annex I