With the new school-leaving exam – more top marks and fewer ‘100s’ – the South comes out on top once again

The reform of the school-leaving exam introduced by Minister Giuseppe Valditara – which limited the oral exam to four subjects and reduced the examination boards to five members (including two internal examiners and two external examiners, including the chair) – has had an initial effect: an increase in the number of students graduating with honours. This is true both in absolute terms – with 14,123 students graduating with honours in the 2025/26 academic year, compared with 13,857 in 2024/25 – and in percentage terms: the figure has risen from 2.8 per cent to 2.9 per cent.

The geographical distribution, however, has not changed all that much, given that 62.8 per cent of the ‘top performers’ are concentrated in the South. Last year, 62.3 per cent of students achieving 100 with honours were from the South. This is despite the differences in learning outcomes reported annually by Invalsi.

According to the report on the results of the state exams published by the Ministry of Education and Merit, the largest proportion of the 14,123 graduates with honours was once again recorded in Campania this year, where 3,018 sixth-form students achieved this distinction (a full 120 more than in 2024/25, when the figure stood at 2,898). There, however, was a change in the other two places on the podium. Puglia comes second this time with 2,104 cum laude qualifications, compared with 1,928 in Sicily, which last year had 1,947, compared with 1,891 for students from Puglia.

There has been little change, however, in terms of the type of school attended. Grammar schools continue to top the list with 4.3 per cent of ‘highly commended’ students, followed by technical schools at 1.7 per cent, up from 1.6 per cent in 2024/25. Vocational schools are once again in third place, maintaining the 0.6 per cent figure from the previous year.

Another interesting finding to emerge from the MIM report concerns a decline in the number of school-leavers achieving a mark of 100 compared with the previous 12 months. In the 2024/25 academic year, 7.1 per cent of sixth-formers achieved top marks (without distinction); this time, the figure was 5.3 per cent.