The general trend is positive. Over the last ten years, early school leaving has fallen by a third, from 17.6% in 2012 to 11.5% (2022). Many regions of Italy have even passed the EU threshold (9%). Nevertheless certain parts of the country, especially in the South, continue to lag behind. 16.1% of young people in Campania and 18.8% in Sicily leave school without a diploma. Early school leaving is not simply a problem of empty desks. For a number of years, Invalsi (the National Institute for the Evaluation of the Education System) has measured the rate of disengagement from education (percentage of pupils whose literacy and numeracy skills are considered critically low): 9.7% of high school students. Here too there are significant differences between the regions, with Sicily at 18% and Campania at 19.8%. Combining the figures for early school leaving and disengagement, one student in three in these regions embarks on adult life without the literacy skills needed to exercise their rights of citizenship or to take part effectively in further training/specialisation. 

The differences between the regions are determined by situations of greater economic and cultural poverty among families, a poorer offering of educational services by local authorities (crèches, canteens for full-time education, sports facilities, etc.), more dilapidated schools and reduced regional capacities for organising training programmes. In the South, for example, there is practically no vocational education and training system. In five years, a child in Palermo attends over one thousand hours less schooling than a child of the same age in Florence: the equivalent of one year’s education. In the first few years of life, that same child has been unable to attend a crèche or nursery school – a great opportunity for socialising and improving decision-making skills, especially for children suffering from educational poverty.

This clear divide between North and South conceals less visible but equally important differences within the regions. Though the Italian education system is almost entirely state-run and governed by the Ministry of Education according to standards that are in theory identical for the entire country, in reality this uniformity is increasingly a matter of appearance and hides practices and results that differ radically not just within the one region but within the same urban areas and, in many cases, even within the same institute. Significant differences can appear between one site and another and even between one class and another. Many studies have revealed that in large towns and cities, from the start of primary education, parents’ choices lead to a far more polarised social composition within schools than exists in the urban areas where those schools are located. In the South this difference is highly visible even between one class and another of the same school. This polarisation is exacerbated by that associated with the teaching career: in the absence of incentives for choosing to teach in more difficult schools, teachers inevitably begin their career in disadvantaged suburban schools and gradually move to more prestigious ones in town centres. The result of this is that “good” schools, partly thanks to talented directors and teaching staff, are able to seize every opportunity afforded by their autonomy to build alliances with regional bodies, local authorities, businesses, associations, museums, etc. and to provide their students with an excellent education. 

At the other end of the scale, schools staffed by supply teachers and run by directors who are often responsible for a number of institutes, and with parents who are unable to provide supplementary resources, fall behind in their ability to improve their own resources and structures. This weakness makes it difficult for them to access and make effective use of the funding actually made available by ministerial announcements. Left to their own resources, they view improvement as unattainable. 

At the other end of the scale, schools staffed by supply teachers and run by directors who are often responsible for a number of institutes, and with parents who are unable to provide supplementary resources, fall behind in their ability to improve their own resources and structures. This weakness makes it difficult for them to access and make effective use of the funding actually made available by ministerial announcements. Left to their own resources, they view improvement as unattainable Just like “good” schools, along with competent and passionate teachers and directors, under-performing schools need autonomy to improve their image, to become more attractive, innovative and effective, and to gain a better reputation locally. We would like to see schools in difficulty given guided assistance and positive discrimination to help develop long-term improvement plans, along with the extended autonomy needed to implement them. The focus must not only be on the professional development and improvement of teaching staff – though this too is essential – or on the refurbishment of school buildings: multi-disciplinary support must be provided for students encompassing the specific needs of the school, young people’s socialisation and their complex affective dimension. Such responsibility will prove irksome for those teachers who are convinced that their only task is to transmit knowledge within their own field of knowledge. Many of the schools in greatest difficulty have established important alliances with the vast and often deeply rooted world of non-governmental organizations, through initiatives to support families, offer extended learning hours, support the daily work of teachers, acquire and apply new skills, and renovate and run new amenities, sports and theatrical facilities, sometimes with rich natural and artistic resources. Making effective use of these offerings in students’ development and integrating them into the teaching programme demands serious commitment from both teachers and school directors, along with a good level of school autonomy.

The challenge of this new and ambitious task lies in enabling schools operating in difficult contexts to design and implement long-term operating plans that bring all the necessary competences into the education project, from teaching skills as such to professional skills currently considered external and relevant only to educators in service sector associations.

The “Autonomy and alliances for closing gaps in education” Symposium organised by Scuola Democratica and Bolton Hope Foundation examines these themes by focusing on the many and varied gaps that exist in our education system today and examining ways to help under-performing schools implement robust improvement plans, with special reference to the Promoting autonomy to reduce inequalities project currently running in Palermo.