Dossier Aie

The textbook endures: first tool used in the classroom and at home. 74% prof already with AI

Survey 'The value of textbooks in classroom teaching and home study, when AI enters the classroom', presented at the Chamber of Deputies at the conference organised by the Italian Publishers' Association

by School Editorial

27 May 2026

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The textbook remains at the heart of school learning processes, even in the days of Artificial Intelligence. All the more so in a complex scenario where - say two out of three teachers - the ways and times of student learning have deteriorated over the past five years. This is what emerges from the survey 'The value of the textbook in classroom teaching and home study, when AI enters the classroom', presented today at the Chamber of Deputies during the conference organised by the Italian Publishers Association (Aie) 'The Value of Knowledge. The textbook as an essential asset of the country. Investing in education and supporting families'.

The search

A survey based on the responses of 3,399 primary and secondary school teachers in Italy (the original responses of 5,274 teachers were reduced to 3,399 to ensure a representative sample at Italian level), with the aim of examining the value that teachers attribute to the textbook (and to the digital materials linked to it) in classroom teaching and student home study.

Involving over 2,100 teachers

The event promoted by Aie at the Chamber of Deputies, on the initiative of the President of Commission VII (Culture, Science and Education) Federico Mollicone and under the patronage of the Ministry of Education and Merit, also involved more than 2,100 teachers connected via streaming from all over Italia. The textbook, with all the other didactic materials that accompany and supplement it, thus obtains a rating of 8.5 points, playing an even more important role in home study, where (with 8.7 points of appreciation) it is considered by teachers to be the essential point of reference for students' study and learning. Textbooks, say Italian teachers, are the first tool used for classroom development (99%).

Integration

In this scenario, 74% say they also use AI tools to prepare teaching materials. And, again on the subject of AI, tools made by publishers are considered useful by teachers, especially those that enable the development of tests and exercises (80%). The textbook is also the first tool used for home study (81%). For almost 70% of the teachers, students' learning times and modes have deteriorated over the past five years. The reasons given are first and foremost the reduction in time devoted to individual study (72%), the increasing difficulty in tackling complex texts (58%), but also the use of AI tools to do homework (36%). In the face of this transformation, 90% of teachers affirm that the organisation of content in textbooks and related materials is functional to current student learning patterns.

The active catalogue

According to a second study presented at the Chamber, the Aie Observatory on the world of school and publishing supply, the active catalogue (at least one adoption linked) today consists of 22,386 titles (ISBN codes for textbooks in Modes A, B and C) corresponding to over 5 million (5,042,541) digital content offered (it was 3.6 million last year). In 2025/2026, almost all adopted school books, 95.7 per cent, are in the so-called Mode B, which combines the printed book - central to learning processes - with the digital format (e-book) and digital learning content offered at no increase in cost. The e-book is used to a limited extent by students, but the use of digital learning content is growing. For almost all adopted books (according to publisher responses covering 90% of school adoptions) publishers have released or are releasing AI tools for the school year 2026/27.

Cipolletta: Concerns that teachers are experiencing a deterioration in learning in the

'This appointment reminds us of the importance of education and solid knowledge for the growth of the country,' emphasised Aie president Innocenzo Cipolletta in his introductory remarks, 'It is worrying that teachers feel the quality of learning has deteriorated over the last five years. This is why school publishing plays a strategic role. We need the constant effort of companies to be accompanied by the institutions with appropriate measures to support the right to education and the economic sustainability of the sector. At stake is not just an industrial sector, but the education and cultural growth of the new generations and thus of the entire country'.

Riva: difficult context

"School publishers," explained Aie's Education Group Chairman Giorgio Riva, "with their textbooks participate in the education process of millions of students every day and provide constant training and information to teachers, the core of our education system. We are aware of our responsibility to participate in the country's development process and the value of knowledge. However, the context in which we move is extremely difficult from an economic and regulatory point of view: denatality, price regulation and guideline reforms impact our work every day. Interventions are needed: introducing tax deductions for families for textbooks at least up to compulsory schooling, rapid and simplified processes for the disbursement of funds to less affluent families, taking into account our multi-year publishing plan, attention and support for those who work in the primary school sector, which is most impacted by denatality, amending decree 781/2013 to take into account publishers' investments'.

Mollicone: the textbook is indispensable

"The textbook represents a logical architecture functional to teaching and an indispensable safeguard of authority, capable of protecting children from the cognitive fragmentation of ungoverned digital technology," stressed Federico Mollicone, president of Commission VII (Culture, Science and Education). "As legislators, we are aware of the challenges in the sector, from demographic winter to new technologies, and this is why the executive has taken action to protect the industrial stability of the sector. We have done so with concrete measures, long overdue since 2012, restoring oxygen to the sector and recognising the real costs of production. At the same time, we have guaranteed the social protection of families in difficulty by increasing funds for the right to education. To govern this complex ecosystem, the highroad remains the principle of subsidiarity: institutions, businesses, and families must work in an organic synergy that maintains the primacy of rigorous knowledge in the development of the country'.

Frassinetti: concrete results from collaboration with the ministry

"Textbooks represent indispensable cultural tools for the growth and training of students in an ever-evolving educational context," Paola Frassinetti, Undersecretary for Education and Merit, pointed out in her speech. "The Ministry of Education and Merit, through its structures, has maintained a constant dialogue and constructive debate with the IEA on the many issues shared in the interest of the world of schools and students. A collaboration that has made it possible to achieve concrete results, from the adjustment, after thirteen years, of the expenditure ceilings for book endowments to the planned inflation for first and second grade secondary schools, to the increase in the resources of the Fund for less affluent families for the purchase of textbooks. At the same time, certain and adequate timeframes have been defined for the implementation of the new National Indications in school textbooks'.

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