Curriculum, subjects, number of hours

At present, seven types of liceo (pl: licei) offer education in the following areas: arts (liceo artistico), classical studies (liceo classico), sciences (liceo scientifico), languages (liceo linguistico), music and dance (liceo musicale e coreutico), human sciences (liceo delle scienze umane), Made in Italy. 

At liceo artistico the following programmes are available for students: figurative arts, architecture and the environment, design, audiovisual and multimedia design, graphics, set design. The liceo scientifico offers an option in applied sciences and an option in sports, while the liceo delle scienze umane offers an option in social and economic studies. In all licei other experimental options may be available.

According to the current legislation, general upper secondary courses at licei ‘provide students with the cultural and methodological tools necessary for a thorough understanding of the world, enabling them to approach situations, phenomena and problems with a rational, creative, proactive and critical mindset, and to acquire knowledge, skills and competences that are consistent with their personal abilities and choices, and suitable for further higher education, integration into society and entry into the world of work.’ (DPR 89/2010).

The five years of general upper secondary education are organised, for teaching purposes only, into two cycles of two years and a final fifth year. The purpose of the first two years is to deepen and develop the knowledge, competences and skills acquired by students in the first cycle of education. Knowledge, competences and skills are further developed in the second two-year period. In the fifth year, students are expected to have fully reached the specific learning objectives foreseen by the relevant curriculum for each branch of studies.

The content of this chapter applies to all licei, unless otherwise stated.

Steering documents

At all school levels, 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 integrated by the ‘student’s educative, cultural and professional profile’ (Profilo educativo, culturale e professionale dello student – P.E.Cu.P), representing what a student should know and be able to do at the end of upper secondary education.

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 educational 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 general upper secondary level, the curriculum is defined in the National Guidelines for licei (Indicazioni nazionali per i licei) issued in 2010 (DM 211/2010). For each type of liceo they set out the specific learning objectives of each subject, describing knowledge and skills that students are expected to acquire and what they should know and be able to do at the end of each type of liceo. The National Guidelines of 2010 are currently under revision. 

The lists of subjects and the relevant annual timetables for each liceo are available in the Annexes from B to G of DPR 89/2010, in the Annex A of legge 206/2023 for the liceo of Made in Italy and in Annex A of DPR 52/2013 for the liceo specialising in sports. 

The National guidelines are supplemented by the Guidelines for the teaching of civic education (Linee guida per l’insegnamento dell’educazione civica) of 2024 (DM 183/2024). 

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 second cycle of education, given the variety of programmes and the existing guidelines for the relevant curricula, the Guidelines suggest that the teaching of STEM disciplines should favour group work, research and experimentation through teaching methodologies such as, for example, the promotion of hands-on activities, active and collaborative methodologies, the promotion of activities that address problems of an applied nature, inductive methodologies. 

In addition, the DM 139/2007 defines the knowledge and competences that all students are expected to have acquired on completion of compulsory education, i.e. at the end of the second year of upper secondary education. Knowledge and competences integrate the current upper secondary curricula, specific for each type of school, and refer to the eight key competences for lifelong learning defined at European level (2006/962/EC). 

Subjects

In all types of liceo:

• English is compulsory,
• Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is compulsory in the fifth year (in the liceo linguistico, CLIL is compulsory in one language starting from the third year up to the fifth and in a second language in the fourth and fifth years),
• the teaching of mathematics in the first and second grades also includes ICT, except in the liceo specializing in applied sciences,
• the teaching of human sciences includes biology, chemistry and earth sciences,
• civic education is compulsory,
• Catholic religious education is optional for students.

Civic education was introduced in 2020/2021 (law 92/2019), replacing the former ‘Citizenship and Constitution’. Its contents 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).

Civic education has a dual nature: while its teaching is cross-curricular, it has a dedicated timetable, and it is assessed separately. The ‘Guidelines for the teaching of civic education’ (Linee guida per l’insegnamento dell’educazione civica, annexed to the DM 183/2024) establish that 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. Where applicable, the teaching of civic education is assigned to the teachers of the law/economy areas. 

Schools must include in the curriculum the teaching of Catholic religion that, on the contrary, is optional for students. Families make their choice at enrolment in the first grade for the whole 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 in agreement with the Italian Catholic Church. At present, the reference document are the National guidelines for the teaching of Catholic religion in the second cycle of education (Indicazioni didattiche per l'insegnamento della religione Cattolica nel secondo ciclo di istruzione e formazione annexed to DPR n.176/2012) Teachers are specialists and need to pass a specific training according to both the State and the Church legislation. Students not attending Catholic religion can choose among carrying out activities linked to the values of citizenship with or without the support of teachers, carrying out in depth studies, or do not attend school. Schools include the alternative activities in their own curriculum. 

In all types of liceo, students attending the last three grades spend at least 90 hours in work-related learning activities called school-work training (formazione scuola-lavoro, formerly known as ‘PCTO’). Such activities aim at deepening students’ knowledge and competences to increase their job opportunities and to facilitate their choice of further studies (law 107/2015). Students can experience traineeships during their holidays or during the school year, also abroad. Subjects involved in this type of training experience range from enterprises to public and private bodies, to professional associations, to public and private institutions operating in the artistic heritage, cultural and music sector to recognised sports societies. School managers choose the enterprises from the national register for traineeships that lists the subjects offering traineeships, the posts available and the periods when it is possible to carry out the activities. Schools organise courses on the protection of health and safety in the workplace for students engaged in traineeships. The participation in traineeship activities is one of the mandatory requirements for the admission to the final examination that students stand for at the end of the fifth year of study (D. Lgs. 62/2017).

Through their ‘Three-year educational offer plan’ (Piano triennale dell’offerta formativa - PTOF), institutions can offer additional courses which must be consistent with the curriculum of each liceo. Such courses are optional for students. Once a student has chosen an optional course, attendance is compulsory and performance is assessed as all the compulsory subjects in the study plan. Optional teachings cannot exceed the 20% of the total teaching timetable foreseen in the first two-year period, the 30% of the total teaching timetable foreseen in the second two-year period and the 20% of the total amount of the fifth grade. Optional teachings are included in the student’s digital curriculum, which collects also all data on the student’s course of studies, the acquired competences, traineeship experiences and all the extra-curricular activities (culture, arts, sport, voluntary service).

Finally, to ensure equal education to all students, the Ministry has defined the knowledge and competences that all students are expected to have acquired on completion of compulsory education, thus integrating the current curricula at upper secondary level. Knowledge and competences are organised into 4 'cultural areas': languages, mathematics, science/technology and history/social studies. Key competences refer to the eight key competences for lifelong learning defined at European level: learning to learn, planning, communicating, collaborating and participating, acting autonomously, problem solving, creating connections and relations, acquiring and interpreting information (2006/962/EC and DM 139/2007).

Number of hours

The study plans of each liceo indicate the compulsory annual teaching hours for each subject. The school year is made up of 33 weeks. 

The subjects and the relevant timetables are available in the Annexes from B to G of DPR 89/2010, in the Annex A of legge 206/2023 for the liceo of Made in Italy and in Annex A of DPR 52/2013 for the liceo specialising in sports. Other options may be available on experimental basis.

Teaching methods and materials

The Constitution of the Italian Republic establishes the principle of freedom of teaching. The choice and use of teaching methods and materials must be consistent with each school's educational offer plan (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.

Schools generally plan their teaching activities at two different levels: at department level for the objectives of each subject and each grade and at class level for cross-curricular objectives. Schools are usually equipped with a gym, library, science and computer laboratories and laboratories for the specific courses offered by individual schools.

Teachers choose the textbooks, as well as other teaching materials, for their classes and submit their choice to the teachers’ assembly that formally approves the textbooks. 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 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 are required to register their products in case they are willing to 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 (as for 2025/2026, DM 58/2025, Annex II). 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.