The report

University, one in two students have lied at least once about their results

Two tragedies in just a few hours turn the spotlight back on the psychological burden of study. But these are not isolated cases. The latest HBSC report (Health Behaviour in School-aged Children), an international study promoted by the World Health Organisation and edited in Italia by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS)

by School Editorial

17 April 2026

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

In Rome, a 13-year-old boy decides to throw himself into the void, leaving a suicide note saying: 'I am tired of school'. And, a few hours and a few kilometres away, again in the capital, a 23-year-old girl is found dead in the hallway of the building where she lives, on the day she and her family were supposed to celebrate a graduation that was, however, non-existent, as she had not attended university for some time.

Two Tragedies

Two tragedies of dramatic and mocking topicality, affecting as many levels of education, very different in their approach and dynamics. And yet, linking these two tragedies is an all too obvious red thread: the unbearable weight of expectations and a performance anxiety that devours our youngsters. These are not, in fact, isolated cases or mere 'individual frailties', but the tip of the iceberg of a systemic malaise.

Widespread discomfort

Suffice it to think, as confirmation of a widespread discomfort, of a couple of data that unite these dramatic events: today, in Italia, more than half of adolescents (between 15 and 17 years old) do not want to go to school because of the stress caused by the study load, while at university a (curiously enough, but not too much) similar quota - about 1 student out of 2 - goes so far as to lie about their career in order not to disappoint those around them. Impressive numbers - on which the Skuola.net portal takes stock - that force us to rewind the tape, go beyond the black chronicle and analyse, data in hand, what happens long before the breaking point is reached.

The bell nightmare: stressed and unloved as early as high school

The malaise begins, in fact, at an early age. The latest HBSC report (Health Behaviour in School-aged Children), an international study promoted by the World Health Organisation and edited in Italy by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), which observed an impressive sample of over 89,000 boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 17, provides a snapshot of the psychophysical health of the very young.

Mental distress

And the numbers paint a picture of a school environment increasingly experienced as a source of exhaustion. As mentioned above, the most alarming data concerns dislike for classrooms: if among 11 to 13-year-olds there is still a majority (over 50-60%) who like the school environment, as they get older, enthusiasm plummets. Between the ages of 15 and 17, about 1 in 2 students do not like going to school, with approval rates plummeting below the 50% mark, particularly among older children. Underlying this rejection is rampant anxiety: again in the 15-17 age group, over 80% of students say they are stressed by the school workload of homework, questions and constant tests. A dislike that, experts warn, gets steadily worse over time.

The university trap: 1 in 2 lies to survive expectations

Continuing in the process of growth - human and educational - things certainly do not get better, quite the contrary. If high school exhausts, university risks isolating definitively. The case of the 23-year-old girl - who landed in Rome from Sicily to pursue her (or her family's?) dream of a university degree - is the dramatic outcome of a short-circuit that insiders know well: the "impostor syndrome" and the network of lies that inexorably tightens around students who are out of school or in difficulty.
The anatomy of this trap is explained in a recent survey by Skuola.net, conducted on a sample of 1,100 university students. The analysis, in fact, reveals the contours of a real emergency: as many as 7 out of 10 university students feel the pressure of having to achieve objectives or expectations of others, dictated by the family, competition with peers or performance models proposed by the media. Of these, half feel this crushing weight every single day.

Single refugee

And when the burden becomes intolerable, lying becomes the only refuge. As many as 1 in 2 students - in a curious parallelism between younger and older students - confess to having lied at least once about their progress, mainly for reasons of emotional survival: there are those who hide a failed exam and those who, sinking into a spiral from which they cannot escape, go so far as to fake entire sessions or the imminence of graduation. This loneliness, in which large swathes of an entire generation are sinking, is also fuelled by the coldness of the institutions: only 1 university student out of 4 declares himself satisfied with the attention that his university pays to the mental wellbeing of those enrolled.

A deep generational malaise

All this school and university anxiety is, moreover, part of an even broader picture of general dissatisfaction. As certified by the 16th Atlas of Childhood (at risk) - Without Filters by Save the Children, the overall level of satisfaction with one's own life on the part of young people is in constant decline. School desks and university classrooms are therefore not the sole cause of malaise, but represent the main stage on which young people are called upon to 'perform' on a daily basis. When the system exclusively rewards excellence, timing and productivity, failure or simple physiological slackness is experienced not as a stage in the journey, but as an unmentionable fault to be concealed at all costs. To the point of extreme consequences.

A schizophrenic school

"The performance anxiety of our young people is by now chronic and, as I have repeatedly denounced, one of the main culprits is linked to the schizophrenia of the school assessment system: in primary school no one is stopped, in middle school it is 1.5 per cent at the most, in high school on the other hand the abyss opens up with a rejection rate of around 6 per cent, which is accompanied by more than 15 per cent of those sent back in September. This has a twofold negative effect: students are not trained in selection and are not allowed to intervene promptly on any shortcomings. And intervening when it is too late becomes almost impossible. If we add to this the performance anxiety resulting from the constant comparison with successful models who are depopulated on social networks, the drama is done and soon explained," says Daniele Grassucci, director of Skuola.net.

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