I T A L I A

I T A L I A

2009 Intel ISEF Educator Academy

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IntroductionsPiero AlbertiSecretary General, FAST (Italian Federation of Scientific and Technical Associations )

Giulio Occhini

Director, AICA (Italian Computer Society)

Danny Arati

Corporate Affairs Manager UK Online Education Programmes Manager, EMEA

Intel

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Educational EnvironmentIn total, there were 737K teachers

employed in the public sector, with 7,7M K-12 pupils attending 14K

schools.Compulsory school age is 6-16;

schooling is organised in two cycles: the first cycle is

compulsory and covers primary (elementary) and secondary

(middle) school, the second cycle is optional and covers high school. For the latter, students can choose

between “Liceo” (academic education), “Istituto” (professional education) – both choices provide

access to university. Young people can also choose an apprenticeship

(for students aged 15 or above), which allows to alternate between

study and work.

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The Italian educational system is fully centralised, with curricula established by the Ministry of Education and assessed by traditional examination criteria.

The only exception is given by the subject of informatics, which is testdriven, mostly based on the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL).Designed by CEPIS (Council of European Professional InformaticsSocieties), in Italy ECDL is managed by AICA.

Professional and vocational schools curricula can be either centralised ordecentralised (managed by the regions).

Maths and science are taught from primary school onwards and are mandatory subjects throughoutWith regards to University entrance, only technical degrees require completion of maths and science during the second cycle.

Educational Environment

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Science FairsThe biggest fair in Italy (ISEF-affiliated) is the “Giovani e le Scienze” fair, held in Milan every April. In 2009, more than 200 students took part. The government is only marginally involved.

For informatics, a Fair has been organised by AICA in 2004 in Genoa (European Cultural capital of that year).On that basis, AICA is now working to build an interactive computer fair, exploiting simulation techniques to approach maths, physics and biology.

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Science Fairs

The three biggest obstacles in Italy: - Very low government support- Lack of time and resources (projects involve a

high degree of research and experimentation)- The Italian traditional humanistic mentality

influences the set-up of the Science Fairs, which is not appealing to young people.