Education and merit

The case for merit in education is, at bottom, a case about mobility. A school system rewards merit when a pupil's results depend on what she learns and does rather than on where she was born or what her parents earn. By that standard, the Italian system has long carried two structural handicaps: wide gaps between regions, and a strong link between the type of upper-secondary school a student attends and his later prospects.

The figures are stark. In PISA 2025, fifteen-year-olds in the North-West scored 492 in mathematics against 437 in the South. By track, students in licei averaged 501, those in technical institutes 449 and those in vocational institutes 386.^[14] Italy's share of 25–34 year-olds with a tertiary degree was 31.1% in 2025, against an EU average of 44.8%.^[17]

Seen through Article 34, these gaps are a measure of how far the constitutional promise remains unfulfilled. A ministry "of merit" that took the Constitution at its word would be judged less by the excellence of its best schools than by the distance between its strongest and its weakest.

Valditara's own account of merit is set out in La scuola dei talenti, published by Piemme in February 2024. The book centres the school on talents, merit, respect and responsibility, and takes issue with what it describes as the "myth of competences".^[4]

The image he has used to express the idea is that of a lamp. Opening the G7 education ministers' meeting at the Castello di Miramare in Trieste on 28 June 2024, he said: "Sono profondamente convinto che ogni giovane studente sia come una lampada ad olio che aspetta solo il fuoco per accendersi" — "I am deeply convinced that every young student is like an oil lamp waiting only for the fire to be lit" (translation) — adding that "la scuola innovativa deve essere quel fuoco", "the innovative school must be that fire" (translation).^[2]

The metaphor is revealing. It places the potential in the student and the responsibility in the school: talent is presumed universal, and the failure to ignite it is a failure of the institution. Policies such as personalised guidance — the docente tutor and docente orientatore introduced from 2023/24 — and the "4+2" technical-professional pathway follow this logic of multiple routes to excellence. See Students & Youth and Vocational & Technical.

Merit presupposes that achievement can be recognised. Two instruments have been at the centre of this term: the reform of evaluation and the role of national testing.

Law 150 of 1 October 2024 returned primary schools to synthetic judgements — ottimo, buono, discreto, sufficiente, insufficiente, gravemente insufficiente — replacing the descriptive levels previously in use. The ministry framed the change as a way of improving "la valutazione e la comunicazione con le famiglie", evaluation and communication with families (translation).^[6][7] In secondary schools the same law gave conduct a decisive weight in progression. Enacted law

National tests run by INVALSI provide the other half of the picture. They identify the schools whose students lag furthest behind — the basis on which Agenda Sud and Agenda Nord select their most fragile schools — and they measure "implicit dispersion": students who complete school without reaching basic skills. In 2025 that indicator stood at 8.7%, up from 6.6% in 2024, according to press reports of INVALSI data.^[11] It is a reminder that formal attainment and real learning do not always move together.

The details of the evaluation reform, the new examination rules and the revised curricula are set out on the School Reform page.

If talent is universal, the uneven distribution of results is a problem of opportunity. The ministry's main answer has been a pair of targeted programmes. Agenda Sud, adopted by DM 176 of 30 August 2023 and presented in Caivano on 1 September 2023, directed around €265.5 million of PNRR and cohesion funds to more than 2,000 schools in eight southern regions, with extra support for 245 schools identified through INVALSI results.^[8] Agenda Nord followed in May 2024 with €220 million for ten Centre-North regions, including €165.7 million for 2,919 primary schools.^[9]

In September 2025 a further ~€500 million was allocated — €252.4 million for the South and €248.8 million for the North — bringing the total above €1 billion and expanding the most fragile southern schools from 245 to 600, at €150,000 each.^[10] The stated aims are basic skills in Italian, mathematics and English, longer school time and lower dropout. In implementation

There are signs of convergence. The North–South gap in INVALSI mathematics results narrowed from 31 points in 2023 to 27 in 2024 and 23 in 2025.^[11] Causation is hard to establish in a single series, but the direction is the one the programmes were designed to produce.

Every meaning of merit runs through the teacher: it is the teacher who recognises talent, sets standards and gives the extra hour to the pupil who needs it. The constraints are well documented. In 2024, 36% of Italian secondary teachers were aged 55 or over (46% in 2015; OECD average 25%), and in the OECD's 2025 comparison Italian teachers earned 33% less than other tertiary-educated workers, against an OECD gap of 17%.^[19]

The ministry's measures have addressed the profession on several fronts: the 2022–24 national contract, signed in December 2025, with increases of around €150 a month for teachers;^[21] the new roles of docente tutor and docente orientatore, funded with €150 million for 2023 and supported by 20 hours of training;^[20] and laws strengthening the protection of school staff against violence. The full picture is on the Teachers & School Staff page.