FAI for Schools: four major projects are set to begin (for everyone)

Participation, civic engagement, a sense of community and experiential learning in the field. These are the key principles underpinning the national programme for schools for 2026–2027, which the FAI – the Italian Environment Fund ETS – presented today to the Ministry of Education and Merit, in the presence of Minister Giuseppe Valditar, to which is added this year a reflection on places that inspire and promote ‘active peace’, the theme of the new national competition. The FAI’s ‘FAI for Schools’ initiative, which to date has involved more than 4 million children and young people, from nursery schools to upper secondary schools, thus reaffirms the Foundation’s mission to educate the community about, and foster knowledge, respect and care for, Italia’s cultural heritage, starting precisely with the younger generations.

Four major projects spanning the entire school year, offering teachers and classes across Italia experiential learning activities – tailored to the pupils’ ages – focused on education and civic engagement. These activities are recognised as school-to-work training experiences that go beyond the mere imparting of knowledge, thanks to direct engagement through original content designed and developed to complement, support and enrich the school curriculum. ‘The theme of the 2026/27 competition is peace. We’ve taken a bold step! Peace understood as a necessary condition for uniting strengths, intellects, feelings, aspirations and dreams aimed at bringing a community – even the small one of a school class – together around a positive and proactive project capable of helping to strengthen the peace we enjoy. Building a project for peace where peace already exists. This is the message that the FAI is today presenting, with energy, optimism and confidence, to the vast and vibrant world of Italian schools,” said FAI President Marco Magnifico, accompanied by Cultural Director Daniela Bruno.

“Leave us in peace. Ideas, spaces, people, communities” is the title of the themed competition, in which thousands of classes take part free of charge every year (in 2025, over 1,500 classes with 600 projects completed); this year, pupils will be invited to design and bring peace to life, starting with a location in their local area and imagining how it could be transformed into a place that inspires peace, devising actions, activities and events aimed at the local community so that it may be experienced, valued and recognised as such, even by future generations. Together with their teachers, and with the help of a dedicated content platform and training events such as webinars with subject specialists, the pupils are tasked with carrying out the project, which will be assessed and awarded prizes in May 2027.

Another FAI project for schools is ‘Apprendisti Ciceroni’, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2026: since 1996, over 600,000 pupils have taken part (more than 30,000 in 2026 alone) in promoting Italia’s cultural heritage, first by inviting them to study, in the classroom, alongside their teachers and FAI volunteers, special sites in their local area, and then by making them key participants in the FAI Spring and Autumn Open Days as guides to those sites, in their role as Ciceroni. The third major project, now in its fifteenth year, is the FAI Days for Schools, taking place this year from 23 to 28 November at over 200 sites opened especially for the occasion. The format is the same as that of the more famous FAI Open Days, but reserved exclusively for schools: for a whole week, palaces, historic gardens, nature reserves, parks, churches and monuments open their doors to FAI ‘Classi Amiche’ (Friendly Classes) of all levels and stages for guided tours led by ‘Apprentice Ciceroni’, who explain the history and significance of these sites whilst engaging pupils in an interactive exploration of their local area – a commendable and effective example of peer education. In 2025, 7,500 ‘Apprendisti Ciceroni’ guided 36,000 pupils around 239 sites opened by the FAI regional branches.

The FAI’s fourth annual initiative for schools consists of educational visits to the 75 FAI heritage sites across Italia, which to date have attracted almost one and a half million visitors, including teachers and pupils, of whom 70,000 are expected in 2025, offering opportunities for cultural enrichment and hands-on experiences; the FAI’s heritage sites, which by their very nature have an innate educational vocation – ‘schools outside school’ recognised by the Ministry of Education and Merit under an agreement with the FAI that is renewed – and a testament to and narrative of our civilisation, past and present, are truly exceptional learning spaces, open and available especially to visiting teachers and pupils, with multidisciplinary content and activities specifically designed and developed.