School: the Anatomy of a Revolution (1999)

Starting with the reform proposal contained in the document on the reorganisation of school cycles (January 1997), Minister Luigi Berlinguer has promoted a substantial modernisation of the Italian school system. Therefore, the present study aims to highlight some structural data subjected to secondary analyses by comparing the numbers provided by the Ministry of Education and the other institutions holding information on the Italian school system. This procedure has made it possible to highlight some structural elements.

In the Northern regions, the weight of nursery school pupils in the total regional school population is much lower than in the Central and Southern regions. Thus, the level of schooling of the Italian population, while undoubtedly progressing, is alarmingly low for the general population and the labour force. The backwardness of schools is mainly caused by excessive bureaucratisation, centralisation, a rigid and cumbersome organisational model, and a situation where the relationship between schools, the territory and the business world is weak.