Europe at Present [Spring 2003]

ITALY

• 
  nursery school (non-compulsory) for children between 3 and 6 years of age;
  
• 
  primary education for children between 6 and 11 years of age;
  
• 
  lower secondary education for children between 11 and 14 years of age.
  

Access to both university and non-university higher education is reserved for students after passing the State examination (esame di Stato). Vocational training courses are run by local authorities and can be attended by people aged between 15 and 25 and sometimes even older. The lower secondary school leaving certificate diploma di licenza media is needed to gain access to upper secondary school and to enter apprenticeship or alternating training programmes.

Special legislation and experimental initiatives aim at providing special guidance to students who must make decisions about their future career or higher education at the end of upper secondary school. The number of initiatives in the area of guidance undertaken by Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione as well as by Provinces and Communes, public and private bodies are numerous and diversified. Recently the Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione has activated a research path based on projects and in-service training on "orientamento formativo nella scuola media" i.e. a formative guidance in the middle school. having the aim of analysing this theme in all its aspects and of setting up a network of knowledge and experiences to be extended in time. The two year project involves 44 scuole medie located in different parts of the country.

New regulation:

According to the reform to enrol in degree courses laurea students must be in possession of diploma di superamento dell'esame di Stato at upper secondary level or of another qualification obtained abroad and officially recognised. Until recently enrolment could be attained just with the possession of a diploma finale di scuola secondaria superiore except for university courses for which there was a prescribed limited intake; now the Regulations no. 509 establishes that each university must define, in its regulations, the knowledge required for the admittance and lay down the tests' procedures. Tests can be carried out on completion of propaedeutic training activities in collaboration, at the same time, with institutes of upper secondary education. A not positive tests' result doesn’t preclude the enrolment, but teaching regulations will have to specify additional specific training requirements to be fulfilled within the first year of the course.

To enrol in laurea specialistica courses, students must be in possession of a laurea or of another qualification obtained abroad and officially recognised by the Italian educational system.

Education is provided on three levels:

1. 
   Primary education: which includes kindergarten and primary school.
   
2. 
   Secondary education: which includes gymnasio (junior secondary school), eniaio lykeio (unified senior secondary school) and technika-epangelmatika ekpedevtiria (TEE or technical schools).
   
3. 
   Higher education, which includes universities (AEI) and technical colleges (TEI).
   

Attendance at an EL is for three years, as it is in the unified musical (Mousiko Lykeio) and unified ecclesiastical lykeio (Ekklissiastiko Lykeio). These latter types of lykeio follow the regulations for the EL, but they also include about ten additional hours of classes per week in musical and theological subjects respectively. Attendance at evening lykeia is for four years. In accordance with laws 2525/97 and 2640/98, the second level of secondary education is going through a transitional period. All types of lykeio have now (school year 1998-99) been converted into eniaia lykeia (EL) and thus first and second form are already operating as such. The third form, however, in all ELs, is operating for the last time this year on the basis of the provisions in effect for the type of senior secondary school it used to be before becoming an EL. Diagram 5 shows schematically the alternative educational "routes" that pupils in third form of lykeio can follow in the school year 1998-99.

For each TEI department, the content and the length of studies, which is eight semesters, including the semester during which both the graduating project is conducted and the supervised and evaluated apprenticeship in the profession is carried out, are determined by Presidential Decree issued upon the advice of the Department and upon recommendation of the Institute Of Technological Education (ITE). In the future, the recommendation will be a responsibility of the National Education Council (ESYP).

The programme of studies (curriculum) of each TEI department is drawn, upon recommendation of a special programme committee, by the General Assembly of the Department and it is approved by ITE-in the future, by ESYP- based on criteria relevant to its compatibility with the content of studies, its relevance to the level and the nature of Higher Technological Education, its materialisation etc.

The courses provided in the TEI departments are described as compulsory, compulsory elective, or optional. Every semester course carries a number of academic credits (a.d.m) each of which depends on the weekly teaching hours and its degree of importance. The total number of a.d.m. of each semesters’ courses is 30, according to the European Credit Transfer System (E.C.T.S.). The last semester of studies, which includes assignment of the graduating project as well as the supervised and assessed apprenticeship in a work place, grants a total of 30 credits(d.m.) of which 10-20 d.m correspond to the students’ graduating project.

Also, the working load in each semester of studies is 750 hours, that is 1500 hours on an annual basis. Each semester of studies in TEI departments includes fifteen (15) weeks of classes and is followed by two examination periods, of two weeks each. During registration or when registration is renewed at the beginning of each semester, the student submits his/her personal programme of studies which must reflect the relationship between prerequisite and dependent courses as decided by the Department.

With the exception of this obligation, the student draws up independently his personal programme of studies, taking in consideration that the distribution of the courses over semesters is indicative, according to the Department curriculum, and not compulsory for the student.