Reform of schools system adopted

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In March 2003, the Italian parliament approved a reform of the schools system. The changes include a new combined school/work path for students between the ages of 15 and 18, as well as greater choice and decentralisation. Trade unions are largely opposed to the reform, while employers are in favour.

The Italian schools system is currently based on three cycles: primary (or elementary) school, lower-secondary (or middle) school and upper-secondary (or high) school . The age limits for compulsory education are from the age of six years (the first year of primary school) to 16 years ( the end of the first two years of upper-secondary school). In 2000, the centre-left government of the day proposed a reform on the basis of recommendations from the former Minister of Public Education, Giovanni Berlinguer. The reform (based on law 30/2000) did not succeed because it was not possible to issue the implementing legislative decrees, due to the strong opposition of the majority of the schools sector trade unions and because the government did not have enough time left during its term of office. In July 2001, the newly-elected centre-right government announced the suspension of the reform (IT0108371N).

A new reform was subsequently promoted by the new Minister of Education and tried out from September 2002 in 250 schools across Italy. On 12 March 2003, parliament then approved the full-scale reform legislation (law 53/2003). It will be implemented by legislative decrees to be issued by the Minister of Education by April 2005, that is within 24 months of the coming into force of the law. The government does not currently have the necessary funds to cover the whole reform, and thus in 2003 the Minister will only be able to issue decrees which do not foresee more expense than already included in the Ministry’s budget. Extra expenditure for the coming years, based on the implementing decrees, will have to be arranged and agreed upon with the Minister of Finance.

The reform

The reform redefines the age limits for compulsory education and guarantees to everybody the 'right to education and training for at least 12 years or until the acquisition of a qualification (18 years of age)'. It leaves to the implementing legislative decrees the identification of the parameters concerning this 'right to education'.

One of the most important innovations of the law is that it lowers the age of access to school: on a voluntary basis, children can attend nursery school when they are aged two-and-a-half instead of three, and primary school when they are five-and-a-half instead of six.

School education will be divided into two cycles, preceded by nursery school and followed by possible attendance at a university or institute of 'higher technical education and training' (Istruzione e Formazione Tecnica Superiore, IFTS).

Children who turn six years of age by 30 April of the school year will be able to enter the eight-year first cycle of school education. The first cycle will be divided into primary school (five years) and lower-secondary school (three years). Primary education will involve an opening year and two two-year periods. At the end of the five years of primary school, students will attend lower-secondary school, where the education will be divided into a two-year period and then a third year that will serve as a link with the second cycle. At the end of the first cycle, the student will have to pass a state examination. English as a second language and the use of computers will be included on the curriculum from the first year of primary school. A second EU language will be added in lower-secondary school.

The second cycle of school education (after the eight-year first cycle), will provide two possibilities: going to high school (liceo), of which there will be eight different types - artistic, classical, human sciences, economic, linguistic, musical, scientific and technological; or attending a vocational training school. All students will have the possibility of changing the type of school chosen within the high school system or of switching from high school to vocational school and vice versa. High school education will be managed by the central state in collaboration with regions, while vocational training schools will be exclusively the competence of the regions.

High-school education will be divided into two two-year periods plus a fifth year, at the end of which students wishing to attend university will have to pass a state examination. A state examination will not be necessary for access to higher technical education and training (IFTS).

Students that choose vocational training schools will have the option of completing their entire training path between 15 and 18 years by 'alternating school and work periods'. This 'school-work' path will be beyond the competence of the school institutions and based on agreements signed with companies or 'with the respective representative associations, chambers of commerce … or public and private bodies'.

The reform also provides for the creation of a system of evaluation. A National Institute for the Evaluation of the Education System (Istituto nazionale per la valutazione del sistema di istruzione) will periodically examine the education and training paths and the overall quality of the education and training supply provided by the scholastic institutions. It will also organise and manage, together with examination committees, the state examinations provided for at the end of the school education cycles. Evaluation will concern both students' behaviour and learning achievements.

The reform also concerns the selection and training criteria for teachers. Teachers will have to attend training courses which will be defined in details by the implementing decrees. In any case, they will have to achieve, besides a university degree in their discipline, a specialist university-awarded teaching degree, and they will have to engage in specific training activities which will entitle them to teach.

Reactions

The approval of this reform has occurred at a time of industrial conflict in the schools sector. Negotiations over the renewal of the sector's national collective agreement are in progress and the positions of the social partners are still very far apart. Strikes and demonstrations organised to support the trade unions' demands have been marked by unity between the schools sector federations affiliated to the three main union confederations - the General Confederation of Italian Workers (Confederazione generale italiana del lavoro, Cgil), the Italian Confederation of Workers’ Unions (Confederazione italiana sindacati lavoratori, Cisl), and the Union of Italian Workers (Unione italiana del lavoro, Uil) - despite the current tensions between the confederations (IT0303101N).

Cgil, Cisl and Uil have voiced many criticisms of the reform. Daniela Colturani, the general secretary of Cisl's sectoral federation (Cisl scuola), expressed her concern about the 'vagueness' of the new law, which postpones important matters, such as the age limits for compulsory education, and delegates them to the implementing legislative decrees. Enrico Panini, the general secretary of Cgil scuola, called the reform 'disastrous', and commented that 'it will produce a sure and generalised step backwards in the education level in our country'. Cgil, Cisl and Uil are looking forward to starting negotiations with the government over the elaboration of the implementing decrees necessary to put in place the reform.

The education sector rank-and-file committees (Comitati di base, Cobas) are against the reform and 'refuse the idea of the treating the school as a firm and of privatising the educational system'. By contrast, the National Independent School Workers' Union (Sindacato Nazionale Autonomo Lavoratori Scuola, Snals) gave 'its full commitment to the implementation of the law'. Giorgio Rembado of the school deans' association also took a positive view of the reform, despite concerns about the financial aspects.

The president of the Confindustria employers' confederation, Antonio D'Amato, also expressed a positive opinion: 'we needed a reform able to face the problems of the schools sector in order to make the it more competitive and high-quality.'

Commentary

One of the most interesting aspects of the reform is the possibility for young people to have access to an educational path based on vocational training. Together with the traditional educational possibilities (technical schools and high schools) students will have a third option: the work-training path. Furthermore, under the reform students will be able to adjust their educational choices, given the new possibility to switch between types of secondary school.

To understand better the new 'Moratti reform', it is useful to compare it with the abortive reform adopted in 2000 by the previous centre-left government and now repealed. The former reform foresaw the unification of elementary and middle schools into a single seven-year primary cycle, the abolition of the middle school final exam (the so-called licenza media) and the raising of the age limit for compulsory education to 16 years. The reform also provided for the elimination of the distinction between general 'humanistic' education (high schools) and technical education (technical and vocational schools). It provided for secondary school to be divided into an initial two-year common period and a second three-year specialised period.

The logic behind the new Moratti reform confirms the existing three-level arrangement (elementary, middle and high school) and maintains the main traditional types of secondary schools (general, technical and vocational). The two reforms are different in the way they view education provision. The 'Berlinguer reform' was based on the idea that education is a public good and thus should be supplied equally to everybody. According to this logic, the schools system should be strongly centralised, mainly public and little diversified, in order to allow everybody to receive the same amount of education. The Moratti reform, by contrast, is based on the idea that the benefits of education are mainly private and that individuals should thus be free to choose the type of school they prefer. According to this perspective, the schools system should be highly differentiated and privatised in order to allow all individuals to find a suitably tailored school.

The reform attempted by the centre-left government looked for a greater homogeneity of the schools system while the Moratti reform aims at strengthening differentiation, introducing combined school-work courses and transferring responsibility for educational decisions to the regional level, while increasing funds for private schools.

One of Italy's major problems is the low level of social mobility, and school education is a decisive factor in this area. Comparing students' educational qualifications and levels with their family background indicates that children tend to follow the same educational path as their fathers. If the father has completed only compulsory education (ie middle school), the possibility of the son obtaining a university degree is 15.8%, while it is four times higher if the father is a university graduate. This raises the question of whether the new reform will affect this situation.

While vocational training schools can help reduce the level of school drop-outs, it is not certain that the young people that attend these schools are able easily to access the highest levels of education. A 1995 Istat study found that 91% of high school graduates went to university, compared with only 37% of technical school graduates. The solution provided by the reform does not necessarily guarantee a greater educational and social mobility. (Domenico Paparella and Vilma Rinolfi, Cesos)