Italia is making progress on NEETs and early school leavers, but is losing students: down 18 per cent by 2033

Admittedly, Italia lags behind when it comes to university graduates: in the OECD area, 43 per cent of adults of working age (25–64) hold a tertiary qualification; in Italia, the figure stands at just 22 per cent. Yet holding a qualification is important for future employment. In fact, in Italia, the unemployment rate amongst young adults with a tertiary education qualification has fallen from 16 per cent in 2015 to 6 per cent in 2025 (compared with an OECD average of 7 per cent in 2015 and 5 per cent in 2025). And that’s not all. On average, full-time workers aged between 25 and 64 who have been in employment for a year and hold a tertiary qualification earn 54 per cent more than those with upper secondary education. In Italia, the pay advantage stands at 35 per cent. In particular, holders of a three-year degree earn just 4 per cent more than those with upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary qualifications, whilst for those who have obtained a master’s degree or a PhD, the pay advantage rises to 44 per cent.

The OECD also highlights the (usual) issue of teachers’ pay. In Italia, nursery school teachers earn on average 36 per cent less than other workers with a tertiary education qualification, whilst for lower secondary school teachers the pay gap is 33 per cent. However, as the OECD also points out, ‘Italia has recently adopted measures aimed at increasing teachers’ salaries, including pay rises agreed during the recent collective agreement renewals’.

It is also worth highlighting the number of compulsory teaching hours, which, together with other duties – including lesson preparation and marking homework – make up a teacher’s overall workload. On average, in OECD countries, primary school teachers teach 770 hours a year and lower secondary school teachers 710 hours. In Italia, the minimum annual teaching hours are 752 and 616 respectively.

Italia still has a relatively elderly teaching workforce: in 2024, 36 per cent of secondary school teachers were aged 55 or over (down from 46 per cent in 2015), compared with an average of 25 per cent across the countries surveyed. Another contributing factor is that, in Italy, teaching is not always the ‘first choice’ of career. As many as 14.9 per cent of lower secondary school teachers took up teaching after having worked in another profession, compared with an OECD average of 8.4 per cent.

The OECD’s analysis also addresses the highly sensitive issue of the demographic winter. Here too, Italia appears to be bucking the trend, whilst acknowledging that an education system’s need for teachers does not depend solely on pupil numbers. Across the OECD area, on average, the number of teachers in state and private primary schools, measured in full-time equivalents (FTEs), rose by 13 per cent between 2015 and 2024, compared with a 2 per cent increase in pupil numbers over the same period. In Italia, over the same period, the number of primary school teachers rose by 4 per cent, whilst pupil numbers fell by 11 per cent.

Looking to the future, the outlook is bleak: the number of children aged between 5 and 14 in Italia is set to fall by 18 per cent between 2024 and 2033. And this trend will inevitably have an impact on teachers, leading to a reduction in demand ‘should other policies remain unchanged’, warns the Paris-based organisation.

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