The Italian school? It barely exceeds sufficiency. Weighing on obsolete programmes and poor teacher preparation

Barely above six. Italians promote the school system with a risible sufficiency (average grade 6.4), pointing out as their main problems obsolete and overly theoretical curricula, poor motivation of teachers, school buildings, shortage of teachers, inadequate technological equipment, and poor teacher training. They also consider it still incapable of providing adequate skills to meet the demands of an evolving labour market and highlight the qualitative differences between different areas of the country and between large cities and provinces. These, in short, are the main elements that emerge from the FragilItalia report 'The Italian school system', drawn up by Area Studi Legacoop and Ipsos, based on the results of a survey conducted on a representative sample of the population (800 cases aged 18 and over), to test their opinions on the subject.

The overall average assessment of the Italian education system, therefore, stands at a value just above sufficient (grade 6.4, a very slight improvement on the 6.3 recorded last year), with relative variations at the various levels of education. The highest mark goes to the university (6.8, also up by one decimal place from last year's 6.7), which is accompanied by an increasing familiarity with and inclination towards new higher education tools, such as digital universities, which are also linked to a general increase in trust in public education.

The rating for universities is closely followed by pre-schools (6.6, up two decimal places), kindergartens and primary schools (both with 6.5, up three decimal places for kindergartens and one decimal place for primary schools) and high schools (6.1). The lowest mark, a 6, goes to middle schools. The strongest criticism comes from the working class, with 47% of respondents giving a failing grade for middle schools and 42% for high schools.

The main shortcomings of the school, however, under the sign of an overall worsening in assessment compared to last year, are found in obsolete and overly theoretical curricula (49%, with peaks of 55% among the under 30s, in the North West and in the working class, up 5 percentage points), poor teacher motivation (45%, up 1 percentage point), school buildings (44%, up 3 points), teacher shortages (36%, up 1 point), inadequate technological equipment (stable at 36%). On the other hand, the share of those who complain about the lack of teacher preparation drops by 2 points, from 36% to 34%.

Critical judgements also extend to the school system's ability to provide skills appropriate to the demands of a changing labour market, again with a significant overall deterioration in perception. In fact, compared to the previous survey, the positive evaluations decrease significantly. In particular, the language skills provided by our education system are considered adequate by 45% (-3 percentage points; with a peak of 59% among the under 30s), while the main obstacles to their development are indicated in the obsolescence of the teaching programmes (34%, 6 points up), in the poor preparation of teachers (28%, but down by 1 point) and in the dispersion of the curricula (25%, 9 points up). Even heavier judgements were made regarding digital and green skills. Digital skills are judged to be adequate by 40% (up 6 points on last year), and the main obstacles to their development are found in the lack of laboratories (42%, up 18 points on last year), the obsolescence of curricula (33%, up 5 points), the poor preparation of teachers (32%, up 2 points) and inadequate facilities (31%, up 16 points). Green skills are those which register the highest dissatisfaction: only 1 in 4 respondents (26%, a drop of 7 percentage points) consider them to be adequate, indicating that the main obstacles to their development lie in the poor preparation of teachers (stable at 32%), the obsolescence of teaching programmes (stable at 28%) and the lack of interest on the part of teachers (at 27%, up 5 points).