Liceo scientifico
Liceo scientifico is a type of secondary school in Italy. It is designed to give students the skills to progress to any university or higher educational institution. Students can attend the liceo scientifico after successfully completing middle school.
The curriculum is devised by the Ministry of Education, and emphasises the link between the humanistic tradition and scientific culture. It covers a complete and widespread range of disciplines, including Italian language and literature, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, history, philosophy, Latin language and culture, English language and culture, art history and technical drawing. Students typically study for five years, and attend the school from the age of 14 to 19. At the end of the fifth year all students sit for the esame di Stato, a final examination which leads to the maturità scientifica.
A student attending a liceo is called liceale, although the more generic terms studente and studentessa are also in common use. Teachers are known as professore or professoressa.
History
The law Daneo-Credaro
A Royal Commission established in 1906 presented a reform plan that included, among other things, three five-year high schools:- the liceo classico, which was based on the then existing liceo - established by the Casati law - and was characterized by the teaching of classical languages ; allowed access to any university faculty;
- the liceo moderno, without Greek, with the strengthening of the foreign language, with the teaching of a second foreign language, of the law and the economy; it did not allow access to the Faculty of Letters;
- the liceo scientifico, without classical languages, with the teaching of a second foreign language and a strengthening of scientific subjects; it did not allow access to the Faculties of Letters and Jurisprudence.
Gentile reform
The liceo scientifico was confirmed, but radically modified, in 1923 with the Gentile reform, which at the same time suppressed the liceo moderno and the physical-mathematical section of the Regio Istituto Tecnico. The course was of four years and ended with the Diploma, an extremely demanding state exam with five written tests and an oral interview-test, lasting one hour, in two sessions: one for the literary subjects and one for the scientific subjects.After the first four years of one of the three lower secondary schools which, at the time, allowed the continuation of the studies and after passing an entrance examination.
The original liceo scientifico was evidently derived from the ginnasio-liceo , but compared to this it had the disadvantage of not allowing access to studies of letters and philosophy and above all of jurisprudence whose degree course, in addition to presenting some specific professions was attended by most of those who held positions of command. The proposal of the Gentile liceo scientifico was examined by a Commission of the Accademia dei Lincei which deprecated the unification of disparate subjects and the fact that, despite the name, of "scientific" it had very little, especially when compared to the physical-mathematical section of the Regio Istituto Tecnico, just deleted. And indeed, calculating the total weekly hours over the four years, the main subjects were Latin, then Italian, foreign language and mathematics.
Also, should be considered that, at the time, the three lower-secondary-schools that allowed the continuation of the studies, were preparatory to as many secondary schools. In this outline, without an "own" lower-secondary-school counterpart, was inserted the liceo scientifico which was accessible both from the ginnasio and, after the admission examination, from the istituto tecnico or the istituto magistrale. This meant that to attend the liceo scientifico it was necessary to "change" school, even physically because the lower-secondary-schools were housed in the same buildings of the respective higher-secondary-schools, with which they constituted a single course of study. And this change was unnatural both for those who attended the gymnasium, which folded on a de fact "inferior"-school because already at the beginning precluded some prestigious professional outlets, both for those who attended the other two institutes, and after four years of study had to give up at a title immediately expendable in the way of work to go to attend a high school, which evidently required quite another application, moreover with a demanding entrance examination.
For all these reasons, the liceo scientifico had a little success so much that, in a city like Rome, the second liceo scientifico arrived only in 1946.
timetable outline
| Liceo scientifico | I | II | III | IV |
| Italian language | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| Latin language | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Foreign language | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| History | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Philosophy | - | - | 4 | 4 |
| Mathematics | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Physics | - | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Natural sciences | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Drawing and art history | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Total hours per week | 25 | 25 | 26 | 26 |
Bottai Reform
The structure of the liceo scientifico changed in 1940, when the Bottai reform established the single three-years scuola media and the access to the high schools was rationalized; those who wanted to attend the liceo scientifico did not have to change schools, or rather, at the end of lower-secondary-school, everyone had to change schools to attend the chosen secondary school. The liceo scientifico began to establish itself and the number of students grew steadily until reaching the number of students of the liceo classico. Persisted the prohibition on signing in letters and jurisprudence faculties.Because of the war events, the timetable has been altered several times and the final one will only be in 1952.
Apart from a few tweaks to the timetable, a consequence of the extension of the liceo to a five-year type, the new course reproduced the previous course. The most important subject for number of hours remained Latin, then Italian, mathematics and foreign language.
In 1962 it was established that the scientific examination was valid for the signing into any faculty excluded letters; was, in fact, allowed the signation also into the jurisprudence faculty.
From 1969 onwards, when access to university was liberalized, there was a real boom at the liceo scientifico, so much that at the approval of the Gelmini reform, among the students signed in the last year of the course, the liceo scientifico had 103000 students compared to 51000 of the liceo classico Nowadays the liceo scientifico, among the Italian high schools, is the one that welcomes the relative majority of students.
The substantial prevalence of Latin with respect to the same scientific-mathematical subjects and the greater number of students enrolled in the liceo scientifico have meant that Italy is still, among Western countries, the one in which Latin is more studied thing that has caused quite a few controversies.
Timetable outline
''Sperimentazioni'' (1970-2010)
Sperimentazioniwere alternative experimental curriculum bands offered in Liceo scientifico. These specialisms were based on the official curriculum, but enriched by increasing the number of hours dedicated to one or more subjects, or including new subjects.They started in the seventies, when more local autonomy was granted. Schools could offer one or more specialism. When the Gelmini reform came into force, practically all the high schools were offering these experimental streams.
The most widespread alternative streams were:
- P.N.I.
- bilinguismo
- scienze naturali.
- con studi musicali riconosciuti
- sportiva
- umanistica
- scientifico-tecnologica
- scientifico-biologica
- P.N.I. con bilinguismo
P.N.I.
Bilinguismo
Natural sciences
Brocca scientifica
The Liceo scientifico a indirizzo Brocca included, before the Gelmini reform, in addition of how included in the traditional Liceo scientifico, the law and economy subjects at the biennium, the laboratories of chemistry and physics, the computer technology included in the mathematics subjects for all the five years, and more hours of sciences. The various subjects in the five years of course are distributed as follows:Brocca scientifico-tecnologica
This option was one of the seventeen lyceum courses developed by the Project Brocca. This course was characterized by the absence of Latin, by the addition of information technology, technology and drawing, and by the considerable number of hours for laboratorial work.Gelmini reform (2010) and the current curriculum
The current course stems from the Gelmini reform and entered into force on 1 September 2010. Compared to the 1947 course of regulation, there is a significant increase in the number of hours devoted to scientific subjects and a lightening of Latin. At the time the reform came into force, all the experimentations activated were banned. However, a school autonomy is provided which allows each lyceum to redistribute up to 20% of the total hours between the various courses or to activate new ones. The reform has created a new curriculum, the applied sciences option, which gathers the experiences of the pre-existent Brocca scientifico-tecnologica and Brocca scientifico-biologica experimentations that, compared to the liceo scientifico basic curriculum, includes a reduction in the number of hours dedicated to humanistic subjects, the elimination of Latin, an increase in the hours of mathematics, physics and natural sciences and the addition of computer technology as a separated subject. For this reason the "liceo scientifico ad opzione delle scienze applicate" is present mainly at school facilities that already housed Technical Institutes, where laboratory practice is already consolidated.The liceo scientifico mostly follows the liceo classico, adopting the same ministerial programs for teaching Italian, history and geography, and philosophy. For the rest, the course includes a weakening of the hours and programs concerning the Latin language and the history of the triennium to facilitate the in-depth study of scientific disciplines such as mathematics, physics, natural sciences and Computer Technology, this last only in the applied sciences option; there is also the teaching of geometric and architectural drawing.
Traditional curriculum
Applied sciences option
It is included the teaching, in a foreign language, of a non-linguistic subject included in the area of activities and compulsory courses for all students or in the area of the teachings that can be activated by the educational institutions within the limits of the teaching staff annually assigned.Sports curriculum
The first phase of changes to the order structure brought about by the Gelmini reform did not touch on some experimentations and addresses already activated, including the lyceums sports curricula. The revision of these guidelines was launched in 2008, and ended with the proposal in 2011 of a sports curriculum that can be activated at lyceum institutes.The curriculum is an articulation of the liceo scientifico and issues a scientific baccalaureate curriculum sporting courses. Presents the study of a new subject: "Sports law and economics", there is an increase in the hours of physical and sports sciences and of the natural sciences, while the Latin language is absent and the history of art, also, the hours devoted to philosophy have been reduced.
The first curse with sports curriculum was inaugurated in the school year 2012-2013 at the liceo scientifico of the Convitto Nazionale "Vittorio Emanuele II" of Rome, in collaboration with the "Giulio Onesti" Olympic Preparation Center of the CONI.
The study plan is as follows:
- 1 with Computer Technology at the biennium
- 2 Biology, Chemistry, Earth sciences
Final exam
As all kind of Italian high secondary school, also the liceo scientifico ends with an examination whose final score is on a 100-point scale.The exam is compound of three different written tests and an oral test:
- Prima prova, an Italian Language written test, same as in the other kinds of Italian high seconday school. In those parts of Italy where Italian is not the only official language, the first test can be alternatively held in the local co-official language
- seconda prova, a written test of mathematics or physics, decided at national level for each curriculum. This test for the liceo scientifico is compound by 2 problems and 10 questions, the examinee have to choose and resolve 1 problem and 5 questions out of them, problems and questions vary among curricula
- terza prova, a multidisciplinary test decided by the exam committee, which contains questions about four subjects of the last year of course, two subjects are nationally chosen, while the other two are chosen by the school, one of the four subjects must be a foreign language
- colloquio orale, an overall oral test regarding all the subjects of the last year, during the oral test, the exam committee value a presentation made by the examinee related to the last years arguments and as questions related to the presentation or to the previous tests
The total score is the sum of the pre-exam score, the written tests scores and the oral test score.
Examinee whom at the end of the third written test have less than 30 total points are not admitted to the oral test.
If the total points exceed 100, the final score is rounded to 100, if the total points exceed 101, the final score becomes 100 con lode.
The final exam is passed with a score of 60 or more.
The final exam is officially called esame di Stato, although the old name esame di maturità is still in common use.