Italy Holds Its Ground in Global School Survey, but the Gap Inside the Country Widens

Italy's school pupils held above-average positions in maths, reading and science in the latest OECD educational survey, The Local Italy reported this week, at a moment when many other countries recorded sharp declines in the same international comparison. The survey, known as Pisa, tests fifteen-year-olds across participating economies and has become one of the few measures that allows a direct reading of how one country's classrooms fare against another's.

The same foreign coverage noted a large gap that persists between Italian and non-Italian students, a divide that has followed the country's school population through years of immigration and demographic change. According to The Local Italy, Italy's rankings were relatively positive even as the wider picture darkened for many of its peers.