Italy Holds Its Ground in Global School Tests, but the Gap Widens

Italian pupils performed above the international average in mathematics, reading and science in the latest OECD Programme for International Student Assessment survey, according to The Local Italy, which reported that the country held relatively steady while several other nations recorded sharp declines. The finding, published this week, places Italy in the upper half of participating countries at a moment when many education systems are reporting losses attributed to the pandemic years and to the spread of digital distraction in classrooms.

The same reporting notes a persistent gap between Italian students and their non-Italian peers, a divide that has appeared in successive editions of the survey and that education analysts abroad treat as a marker of how well the school system absorbs immigrant children. The Local Italy described the results as positive overall, while stressing that the distance between the two groups remains wide.