ITALIAN school system?

Question

What is the Italian school system like? Not for university students, but for kids in high school. when do they graduate high school, what months are school in session, are there private vs. public vs. catholic (well they are all catholic?). just wondering, and if you could tell me the best of the best that would be great.

Answer 1

The Italian school system is very different from the American one. After 5 years of elementary school (Elementari), there are 3 years which are called "medie" and then 5 years of high school (Superiori). There are three different kinds of high schools to choose from. One is called "professionale" and in these schools they teach you how to manually work on the job. There are many branches to choose: mecanical, sanitary... The goal in this type of school is to teach people how to operate when they graduate. The second type of school to choose from is called "tecnico" here they focus more on books, there are less manual subjects even though they still have some classes where they can pratice their future jobs. The third type of high school is called "liceo". All they do in these schools is study on books, they have no manual classes. They do not teach a specific subject, they teach many but only basics so when the person finishes they have a good general knowledge. Plus this is the only type of high school that doesn't give you a diploma after 5 years. In order to find a job the kids have to go to college.

About the school year, classes start in September and end in June. They have three main holidays which are Christmas vacation, usually 2 weeks, Easter vacation, usually 1 week and Summer vacations, which are 3 months.

About the religion, the only religion they teach is Catholic. However, you can choose to take that class or not.

One important thing to keep in mind is that once you choose the type of school you wish to go to (professionale, tecnico or liceo) all the classes are scheduled for you.

Hope this helped a bit :)

Answer 2

in high school (and elementary and middle) session start at September.. (the right day depend from school to school)but around 7-15 September, than there are winter holidays from 23 dec to 6 gen included, sometimes there are also some days of holiday for carnival, a week for Easter and school end first day of June (10 June)... system of high school is very different, you can choose different type of school specialistic, i mean, for every course there are main subject obligatory (Italian, math,  foreign language, history,p.e.) more you have other 5/6 subject that depends by the kind of school, are obligatory and you cannot choose theme... for example, if you want to be a journalist you go to the "classico" where is more specialized in Italian and literature, so you learn Latin, ancient Greek etc... i liked biology and i choose a school where i learned human morphology, physics, chemistry...

public school are not catholic, there is always 1 hour of religion at week but you can choose not to do it...it's free...

private school are more severe for behaviour (most are catholics) and much more expensive but don't give you better instruction than the public one,anyways depends by school and school...

they graduate after 3,4 or 5 years... if you want to go the university you must have 5 years of higt school (so when you are 19) after 3 or 4 you just take a qualification for a manual works...but if you choose a 3 years school, at the 3rd year you can choose to stop studing or continue for 2 years to get a better qualification and in case go the university.

to get graduation you must do an exam that consist in 3 write tests and 1 oral... generally you finish everything at June- July