Censis, Schools: modernisation still a work in progress. Innovative learning environments receive a thumbs-up

Digital infrastructure and services remain areas of weakness. The quality of school premises continues to be one of the critical factors in pupils’ educational experience, and school buildings remain one of the structural challenges facing the Italian education system.

A significant proportion of schools, in fact, are still housed in ageing buildings, often originally designed for purposes other than education and subsequently adapted. Secondary school pupils confirm the persistence of critical issues affecting essential aspects of school life: 56.3 per cent rate their school’s Wi-Fi system as ‘unsatisfactory’ or ‘seriously unsatisfactory’, and 49.4 per cent rate the condition of the toilets negatively. These are different areas – on the one hand, the quality of services; on the other, access to digital infrastructure – but they share the fact that, in the eyes of pupils, they are the most obvious symbols of the gap between the ambitions of the education system and the actual reality of schools. Environmental comfort is also among the most critical issues: 38.7 per cent of students consider the heating system to be inadequate. These are the findings of a survey carried out by Censis as part of the Iride project ‘Schools as seen by young people’, which involved over 8,000 upper secondary school pupils and 1,000 school leavers aged between 18 and 24.

Innovative learning environments are favoured over traditional classrooms. Positive assessments are emerging for learning spaces other than traditional classrooms: 44.9 per cent of secondary school pupils rate laboratories, computer rooms, the library and well-equipped classrooms as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’; 44.6% on other indoor spaces within the school building, 40.7% on spaces designated for cultural activities (assembly hall, theatre, etc.), and 39.7% on outdoor areas. Traditional classrooms, on the other hand, which still represent the main setting for daily school life, receive mainly ‘satisfactory’ ratings (40.3 per cent); only 30.2 per cent give a very positive rating (‘excellent’ or ‘good’), whilst 29.5 per cent give a negative rating. The buildings as a whole and the sports facilities also present a mixed picture: whilst a significant proportion of ratings are positive (35.8% and 38.0% respectively rate them as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’), a significant proportion of students still report them to be inadequate (28.5% and 29.3% respectively).

41.0 per cent of pupils describe their school’s facilities as ‘normal’, 34.4 per cent consider them ‘old’, 21.6 per cent ‘functional’, whilst only 5.9 per cent describe them as ‘modern’. The concept of ‘normality’ does not necessarily imply a positive judgement, but seems rather to be an expression of a gradual adaptation to conditions often characterised by infrastructural limitations and a lack of maintenance. At the same time, opinions emerge that explicitly highlight shortcomings in quality and maintenance: 17.3 per cent consider them poorly equipped, 16.7 per cent dirty, 9.5 per cent inadequate, 4.7 per cent dangerous and 4.0 per cent dilapidated. However, a comparison with former pupils reveals a somewhat different perspective on their school experience. Among graduates aged between 18 and 24, there is a growing proportion who recall their school as functional (39.1 per cent), clean (24.2 per cent), welcoming and safe (16.6 per cent), and modern (15.5 per cent). Nevertheless, even among those who have completed their schooling, the descriptions ‘normal’ (46.4 per cent) and ‘old’ (33.7 per cent) continue to prevail.