Italy's education system for Indian students: what is free, how the grading works, the exams at 13 and 18, the liceo types, and how it compares with CBSE, with what Indian families do at each stage

Italy's education system for Indian students is free, long, and organised around two exams that Indian families hear about late: the esame di terza media at 13, in Italian, which points a child at a liceo or away from one, and the maturità at 18 or 19, which is the diploma Indian universities recognise. This guide is the whole system on one page for an Indian family: what is free and what is paid, how the grading works at each stage, the exams, the types of secondary school and where each leads, how the Italian levels map to CBSE, IGCSE and IB, an honest answer to "is Italy good for Indian students", and what Indian families do at each stage.

What is free and what is paid

State schools are open to every child living in Italy, whatever the family's nationality or the state of the residence permit, and a school must enrol a child of compulsory age at any point in the year. Alongside the state system sit the paritarie, private schools recognised by the state that follow the same curriculum at €3,000 to €8,000 a year, often Catholic, sometimes bilingual, and the international schools at €11,000 to €28,000, listed with their fees in international school fees in Milan 2026-27 and international school fees in Rome 2026-27.

The grading system, stage by stage

Primaria: six words, ottimo, distinto, buono, discreto, sufficiente, non sufficiente, one per subject, no marks, no rank, plus a written paragraph about the child. Most children are buono.

Scuola media: every subject marked out of 10, 6 the pass, 8 good, 9 and 10 rare, and a separate mark out of 10 for behaviour below which a child is not admitted to the next year. The oral interrogazione counts as much as the written test. How to read both reports, and the phrases teachers use, is in reading an Italian pagella.

Superiore: marks out of 10 continue, with a debt (debito) in any subject below 6 to be recovered over the summer, and a credit score built across the last three years that feeds the final mark.

Maturità: the state exam at the end of the superiore, two written papers and an oral, marked out of 100 with 60 the pass and 100 e lode the top, combining the exam with the credits from the last three years. This is the diploma an Indian university sees.

The exams

INVALSI, the national tests at 7, 10, 13, 15 and 18, measure the system rather than the child and appear on no report; the terza media round is compulsory for admission to the exam and gives a certificate of levels. Dates and what to prepare are in INVALSI explained.

The esame di terza media at 13 or 14: written papers in Italian, maths and the languages, then an oral, marked out of 10, preceded in December by the school's consiglio orientativo pointing the child at a liceo, a tecnico or a professionale. The recommendation is built largely on seconda media marks; how it works and what moves it is in the esame di terza media and the consiglio orientativo.

The maturità at 18 or 19, described above.

The types of secondary school

• Liceo, five years, academic: scientifico (and its scienze applicate variant), classico, linguistico, scienze umane, artistico, musicale. Leads to university. The liceo scientifico is where most Indian families aim, and a number of state licei now run Cambridge IGCSE sections that give an English qualification alongside.
• Istituto tecnico, five years, applied: economic and technological tracks, informatica, meccanica, chimica among them. Leads to university or work, and the technological tracks are strong routes into engineering.
• Istituto professionale, five years with a qualification at three, vocational. Leads to work and to further training.

A child can change type in the first two years with a bridging exam; it happens, and it costs time. The full class-by-class picture from 6 to 14 is in the Italian school system explained.

How the Italian levels map to CBSE, IGCSE and IB

The extra year is real: an Italian child finishes school a year later than an Indian child of the same age. A family that may return to India plans for that, and keeps the CBSE sequence alive in science and English, which drift furthest from an Italian classroom; the plan is in how to keep your child CBSE-ready, written for the Netherlands and identical in method.

Is Italy good for Indian students?

For a child aged 6 to 14 in a state school, yes, with conditions. The schooling is free and thorough, the teachers are direct and expect parents to come and talk, the Italian arrives fast for a young child, and the homework habit is one an Indian family recognises. The conditions: the maths is slower than CBSE in primary school and only catches up in the media, the English is an hour or two a week and weak, science barely exists before 11, the oral culture takes a term to learn, and the exam at 13 is in Italian and arrives quickly for a child who came at 11. For a child arriving at 12 or older on a short stay, an international school is the safer route. The wider question of Italian school against international school, with the paritaria middle, is in international school vs Italian school.

What Indian families do at each stage

At the infanzia, enrol early; the Italian a 4-year-old absorbs is the largest gift the country gives. At the primaria, choose tempo pieno where it exists, keep the maths at an Indian standard and the English as a real subject at home, and read the registro elettronico daily. At the media, work the oral, keep the maths a term ahead, and say the word liceo to the coordinator in the first term of terza media. At the superiore, take the scientifico with a Cambridge section if one is within reach, and keep the CBSE science alive if a return is possible. And in every summer, the three months from June to September, use the time the Italian system gives.

What we do

We teach maths, science and English to Indian children in Italian, bilingual and international schools across Italy, in English, Hindi or Punjabi, one child per class, in the order of the child's actual school, with the terza media and the return to India in view. Bring the child's age, school type and last report to the free demo and we will tell you where they sit in this system and what to keep at home.

Questions parents ask

See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →