Italian Education Ministry Sets 2026 School Policy Priorities

The Italian minister of education released a 2026 policy address that places the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) at the centre of school reforms. The document emphasises increased central control over funding, innovation projects, artificial‑intelligence tools, staffing and the technical‑professional “4+2” pathway, while promising to boost institutional autonomy but limiting regional involvement.

The 2026 INVALSI national report follows a cohort of roughly 515,000 students who were in third‑grade secondary school in 2021. It finds that 73.2% are enrolled in the fifth year of upper secondary school, 11.5% have delayed at least one year, 6.9% have entered vocational training and 7.3% have left school early. The analysis stresses that orientation should be viewed as a long‑term trajectory, distinguishing explicit dropout from implicit lack of basic competencies, and calls for policies that reduce both forms of dispersion.