Non-Italian pupils, support, technical sixth-form colleges, Latin, book vouchers: how schools are changing

An additional 21 million is being allocated for 2026, to ensure that textbooks are provided free of charge, either in full or in part, and to raise the ISEE threshold from 30,000 to 40,000 euros. Of these funds, 20 million comes from the fund created by the latest budget for families with children in upper secondary school, but which never came into effect. These resources are therefore being allocated to the ‘general’ textbook grant. From 2027, the system will change and those 20 million will be restricted solely to the first year of lower secondary school and the first and third years of upper secondary school (where pupils normally change textbooks more frequently), rather than to all five years of upper secondary school. The result is a reduction in the number of beneficiaries, from the current 1,970,000 pupils to 1,269,000 pupils, a decrease of approximately 35 per cent (almost 700,000 pupils and around 540,000 households). The mechanism will, moreover, be similar to that already used for the private school bonus, with amounts decreasing as the ISEE rises. However, a ministerial decree will set out the details.

To ensure the continuity of personalised learning pathways and to provide financial support for the tutors and careers advisers established under Law 197/2022, the relevant fund is to be increased by a total of 70 million euros (30 million in 2026 and 40 million in 2027)

The provisions governing the Individual Educational Plan (PEI) set out in Legislative Decree 66/2017 have been revised. The Operational Working Group for Inclusion no longer merely makes a proposal, but ‘determines, with adequate justification, the number of support hours to be allocated to the class’. The timetable for drawing up the plan is now set as mandatory and staggered: by 15 October for new pupils enrolled or certified, and by the end of June for pupils already receiving support and confirmed at the same school, with minor adjustments permitted within the first two weeks of October. When moving from one school year to the next, priority is given to maintaining the hours already allocated, subject to review upon progression to the next level of education. Furthermore, the PEI may be approved by the GLO even in the absence of members who have been duly convened, in order to avoid procedural lapses.

A two-year plan worth €14 million (2026–2027) has been approved, entrusted to Sogei, to create a unified platform on SIDI for staff careers, to expand the ‘Piattaforma Unica’ and to develop the new PTOF/RAV application.

The one-off bonus for teachers who successfully complete the incentive-based training programme is set at 10 per cent of their salary.

The scheme allowing public authorities to recruit graduates and ITS Academy diploma holders on fixed-term contracts has been extended until 31 December 2028.

After years of discussion, and in response to a long-standing request from Confindustria, the new names for technical and vocational schools have been announced: the former will be called ‘technological upper secondary schools’, the latter ‘vocational upper secondary schools’, thereby enshrining ‘equal cultural and educational status’ across all fields of knowledge. An additional 10 million has also been allocated to strengthen the new technology-vocational training pathway (the so-called ‘4+2’ model).

To ensure an orderly launch of the new technical colleges, the timetable frameworks are being amended by reducing the allocation of flexibility and autonomy granted to schools during the first two years (132 hours) and further reducing it in subsequent years. These hours are being reallocated to the subject areas specific to each specialisation and to the standardised national curriculum. Specifically, during the first two years, the allocation of hours for autonomy and flexibility reserved for individual schools (amounting to 132 hours under the previous regulations) is completely abolished. During the second two years, the allocation for autonomy is reduced from 198 to 132 hours. In the fifth year, the autonomy quota is reduced from 231 to 99 hours. The total number of hours for pupils remains unchanged (2,122 hours in the first and second two-year periods, 990 hours in the fifth year).