Indicator history

From the 2009 MIUR report, it appears that the number of foreign students repeating a school year increases proportionally with school level, passing from 1.2% in primary school to 9.8% in upper secondary schools. For both Italian and non-Italian students, however, school year repetitions are more frequent and widespread in vocational institutes than in lyceums. The percentage difference between foreign and Italian students, however, tends to diminish in the passage from lower secondary school (+4.7%) to upper secondary school (2,5%). In lower secondary school foreign students’ educational success appears to be a more complex and problematic issue compared to other educational levels. In total, moreover, the number of foreign students who are “held back” (i.e., who are not attending the age-appropriate academic year-grade) is 211,324 (33.5% of the total number of foreign students). If, at the end of the academic year, the number of failures for foreign students is still striking, it is also true that very often the lack of age grade consistency is not due to school failure but is rather connected to entry in the school system at a lower grade (in terms of age-appropriateness) by transfers from other schools or entry after the beginning of the academic year.

Source: Mariagrazia Santagati, “Education” in Fondazione Ismu, The Sixteenth Italian Report on Migrations 2010, Milan, McGraw Hill, 2011.